And Tears You Apart
by xSophiax PLLHG
Summary: The room was now empty. Everything they had to remember her was packed away into boxes, uncertain of whether they'll ever be taken out at the new house. Ten years today since Grace had been kidnapped, ten years today Spencer and Toby's lives came crumbling down... *Sequel to What doesn't kill you makes you stronger*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I'm back again! I couldn't resist writing a sequel to **_**What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, **_**and here it is! So I'm really excited about this story, and I hope it proves to be popular or even more so than its prequel. **

**Hopefully, the updates shouldn't be too sporadic. Please don't expect too much of me though, sometimes I'm pretty busy and other things have to be done before writing, I see writing as more of a reward for finishing something. A new chapter will probably be up every 1-2 weeks depending on reviews and such. Remember, reviews=motivation! As always, I'm open to hearing any ideas for where this story could go and they will be taken into consideration.**

**Here is the first chapter of Fantasy to Reality, enjoy! Don't forget to review/follow/favourite! Shoot for 10 reviews?**

The room was now empty. Everything they had to remember her was packed away into boxes, uncertain of whether they'll ever be taken out at the new house. Ten years today since Grace had been kidnapped, ten years today Spencer and Toby's lives came crumbling down. They were left vacant, empty and confused. But the worst part was that they never had a proper time to grieve. They still had two baby boys to care for. In some ways that could be seen as good; at least neither of them could go crazy, right? Neither of them ended up in Radley. The last thing Spencer wanted to do was turn into was . There was already enough talk after Grace disappeared that Spencer had buried her alive, just as Alison's Mom did. That one hurt. A lot.

_People glared at Spencer and Toby as they strolled through the street towards the park with Jack and Wyatt in their pushchair. At first they assumed it was because there was a silver balloon with _'My first birthday' _written on taped to Wyatt's chair, but then as Spencer started to listen to the strangers more intently._

"_I read it this morning" Some old lady that neither Spencer nor Toby recognised gossiped "Apparently she was taken into questioning last week because the police think she buried her daughter alive, like Alison DiLaurentis's mother did all them years ago" She was half right with that. Spencer had been taken to the police station last Wednesday, but only for further questioning about Grace's favourite things, which were apparently 'need to know'._

"_Oh how original" The lady's shorter, fatter and much uglier 'friend' turned her nose up. Anger built up inside of Spencer, and just as she was about to go over there and put the women in place when she felt Toby's soft hand on her arm._

"_Leave it Spencer" He warned "They don't know what they're talking about"_

"_Too right they don't!" Spencer nearly screamed, meaning other passersby stared at her for a couple of seconds before resuming their journey to god knows where. She ripped her arm from the grasp Toby's hand had taken on it and stormed over to the old women. "Excuse me, but I heard you talking about me"_

"_Well sorry darling" The woman put up her defence by playing the 'I'm an old clueless lady that doesn't know any better'. It didn't work on Spencer, but it did on Toby._

"_Spence come on, the boys are itching to go to the park" He was right, Jack could see it and was pointing his finger to it repeatedly shouting 'there!', which she would have found cute if she wasn't now on a murderous rampage. _

"_Yes you better be off" The woman commented "You want to keep an eye on them boys too; you don't want to lose another kid" _

That memory was as clear as the summer is long, even to this day. Probably because she slapped the woman hard across her sagging cheeks. Thankfully, Spencer was only issued with a warning from the cops, because after collecting statements from witnesses it was clear to them that she had been provoked to extremes. It took Rosewood at least a good two months before they had gotten over that, and recommenced their theories on Grace's whereabouts. Ten years of it got too much though.

It was Toby's idea to move away, not so far that they would only see their friends on special occasions, but far enough away to not be caught up in the town's scandals. They picked a wonderful house that was still within the boundaries of Pennsylvania, but up in Montgomery County in a reasonably large town called Abington. They'd been out to it a couple of times, once on their own and once with the boys. Jack and Wyatt loved it to pieces, and couldn't wait to play baseball out in the garden, which was big enough for Toby to paint out a baseball diamond on. Both the boys played for the Rosewood little league team, but soon Jack would be going into the 11 and over team, only to be followed by Wyatt a couple of months later.

The boys were inseparable, ever since they were both old enough to walk and talk. Jack always tended to be more of the leader, partly because he was older and partly because he was more confident than Wyatt was. Wyatt was shy like his father, but also equally as sweet as caring, while Jack was an exact split between Ezra and Aria, and although Spencer began to get scared as Jack started to grow up that it would be too hard, it was actually really nice having a part of Aria around.

"Mom?" A small voice said from the doorway of the bedroom. Spencer turned to see it was Wyatt, his blue eyes red and puffy as if he's been crying. He was quite sensitive, but never really cried much anymore since he was a 'big boy' now that he's ten like Hanna reminds him all the time.

"Hey buddy" Spencer smiled, taking Wyatt in her arms "What's wrong?"

"Dad and Jack w-were having an argument in our room, and then Dad walked out" Wyatt sniffed into Spencer's stomach where his head came to. "Has he gone to stay with Auntie Emily and Uncle Jason again?" When the boys were six, a huge strain was put on Spencer and Toby's relationship. Spencer thought she was pregnant.

_Spencer emptied her stomach of breakfast for the third time in the past five days. She had done the same with lunch and dinner on other occasions. Of course Toby was right behind her, tying her brown curls back with his left hand and rubbing circles on her spine with his right. Once her abdomen was empty, Spencer collapsed back into Toby's awaiting arms. _

"_Toby, I need to tell you something" Spencer whispered in a raspy voice, her throat burning from the bile that was now in the toilet._

"_What is it baby?" Toby peppered kisses across Spencer's head lovingly. Spencer couldn't help but smirk over the irony of his choice of words._

"_My periods late" She said bluntly. It was suppose to come two weeks ago yesterday. Toby's lips froze on the crown of her head, and for a few moments didn't say anything. When he did, his tone of voice was blank. _

"_Do you think you could be?" No way could he bring himself to say the word. It would be too hard. Spencer shrugged weakly._

"_I don't know, maybe" She mumbled "It would make sense, the morning sickness and my late period" It did make sense, no matter how much Toby didn't want it to add up, it did. The facts didn't lie. He hasn't admitted it to Spencer, but he didn't want another child. At least not right now. It felt like a betrayal to Grace, like by having another baby they had given up on her, but he never would, not in a thousand years._

"_We can't have another one" Toby said "We just can't" Spencer sat up, no longer craving Toby's protective arms. _

"_What if I am?" Spencer asked, offended by Toby's comment "Am I suppose to get an abortion?"_

"_Let's just find out if you are first" With that, Toby left the bathroom, leaving Spencer propped up against the bath sitting in a pool of her own tears. _

_Hanna brought Chloe over to play with Jack and Wyatt, along with six different pregnancy tests, but not for them to play with. Toby said he got an emergency call from work and had to rush in, but something told Spencer it was to do with their short talk earlier. That something was Caleb, who called Spencer to tell her that Toby was sat alone on a damp bench in the middle of the park. _

"_Right, I got three brands, two of each one" Hanna said, pulling each box out one by one and throwing them on the bed "I also got to have a delightful conversation with a six year old about pregnancy" Spencer laughed and grabbed all the tests, taking them into the bathroom._

_Negative. Negative. Negative. Negative. Negative. Negative._

_Spencer wasn't thrilled or distraught. She wasn't hoping on being pregnant, but she wouldn't have minded if she was. A few weeks ago she thought that maybe a baby was what she and Toby needed, but she guessed this was fate's way of telling her it wasn't. After telling Hanna, who said she was probably stressed and needed to relax, they went downstairs to play with the kids and wait for Toby to come home. _

_Toby didn't get home until after Spencer had cooked dinner for everyone and even cleared up. Hanna left with Chloe a few minutes subsequent to his arrival home, so the two could talk it out. Unfortunately, Toby didn't seem to be in the mood to talk, and sat in the bedroom until it was the boy's bedtime. He read them a story since it was his turn, then went straight back into his room. Spencer followed him. _

"_I'm not pregnant by the way" Spencer spat as she closed the door behind her just in case Jack and Wyatt were awake and could hear them. "Of course you wouldn't know that since you walked out before I did the tests"_

"_I guess we have nothing to worry about then" Toby mumbled, making his way for the door, but Spencer blocked him with her hands on his chest._

"Worry _about?" Spencer stressed "What would we have to _worry _about?" Toby knew he was stepping into hot water, but leaving it for a few minutes wouldn't cool it down. He had to answer now. _

"_Trying to raise a baby when my daughter's still missing" Toby knew the second he spoke that he'd messed up completely, he could tell from the painful look on Spencer's face and the tears already streaming down her face that he was an idiot. _

"YOUR_ daughter? Grace is just your daughter now? Because last time I checked she's my daughter as well" Spencer growled through gritted teeth. The salty taste of her own tears made her shiver slightly, but thankfully it went unnoticed by Toby. _

"_I feel like you've given up on her" Toby admitted "When was the last time we talked about her?" What made it worse was that Spencer couldn't remember the last time she had spoken about Grace. Every time that she had tried it hurt too much. _

"_I can't" Spencer wept "I can't talk about her without all the feelings of that day flowing back to me"_

"_It seems like you're not trying"_

"_If you think that, maybe you should leave" Spencer opened the door and moved out of the way. Unexpectedly, Toby stalked out of the room, and she heard the familiar sound of the front door slamming before curling up on the floor for the second time that day._

The two weeks following that were tough. Spencer and Toby split their time with Jack and Wyatt while trying to avoid each other but make it look to the boys that they were on good terms. It only took fourteen days before Toby got drunk one night and poured out his feelings to Spencer like a can of beans. The next morning, once Toby was sobered up, they made up by accepting each other's feelings that were previously masked, and he made a promise never to leave without telling Spencer exactly where he was going. That promise just flew out the window.

"Where's Jack?" Spencer asked, trying to keep herself calm as to not worry Wyatt even more than he already was.

"In our room" He replied shortly. Spencer pushed Wyatt back gently so she could see his face, and wiped away the tears on his cheeks.

"Ok, go grab your school bag and make a start on your homework in the kitchen, I'll come down in a bit" She smiled, ushering Wyatt downstairs then made her way to the boy's bedroom, which used to be the guest room a long time ago. "Hey J"

Jack looked up from his pillow, his brown eyes red and sore "I didn't mean to say what I said-"

"And what did you say?" Spencer asked, perching on the edge of Wyatt's bed opposite Jack.

"I said that I didn't love him" Jack sobbed "Now he hates me"

Spencer sighed and moved to Jack's bed, pulling him into her lap and rocking him ever so slightly "Don't be silly, of course your Dad loves you, it doesn't matter what you say he always will. You shouldn't have said what you did though, that probably upset your Dad a lot"

"Can we go find him?" He asked hopefully. "I bet I know where he is"

XXXXX

"Looks like you were right, bud" Spencer laughed as Jack, Wyatt and herself walked into the park "You two go play, I should go talk to your Dad first" Both boys nodded and ran straight over to the swings that were clearly visible to the bench Spencer approached where Toby was sat.

"It would be nice if you could leave a note next time" Spencer whispered as she stood behind Toby, resting her hands on his shoulder. She knew he'd be angry, so she had to be tender with him to not spark an argument. Toby didn't look up. "Jack regrets what he said; in fact he's the one that knew you'd be here"

"Well he's a smart kid isn't he" Toby finally murmured, still looking at his hands toying in his lap.

"Jack loves you Tobes" Spencer sighed. "He loves you so much"

"Why would he say he didn't then?!" He snapped, shifting his shoulders from Spencer's grasp so she was holding air. "I'm a terrible father"

That got to her. How could he say that about himself? Toby is the best father in the world to Jack and Wyatt, and before she went missing, Grace too.

"Don't ever say that again" Spencer was now round the front of Toby, crouched in between his legs and caressing his cheekbone with her thumb. His face oozed despair, and Spencer couldn't help but remember the exact same face he had when they were in that motel room when they were both –A.

"It's true" He mumbled before pressing his mouth into a line.

"No, it's not. See them two boys over there? They love you so much, just like you love them, and maybe even more. You're their Dad, and they look up to you for everything. In five years, they'll be asking you for advice about girls and cars and god knows what else, and if it's possible they'll love you extra" Spencer said, tears now threatening her own eyes, but she wouldn't let herself cry.

"She'd be thirteen now" Toby whispered "Do you think she remembers us?"

Spencer thought about that for a while. Honestly, she didn't know, she didn't have a clue. She'd like to think Grace would still remember Toby and her, but the likelihood of it wasn't very high. Not many kids can remember memories from when they were under the age of four. A small part of her kept hope though. Grace was always a very smart girl, so maybe she could remember her Mother and Father. But then who knows what Alison had done to her? Brainwashed her? Made her forget everything? Worse?

"I like think so" She smiled brightly, a smile that could even bring Toby out of the worst of moods "Sometimes, I imagine what it would be like if she were here with us, like she should be"

"And what do you see?" Spencer laughed at Toby's question as she let her visualization run away with her a little.

"I see me and her sat in the kitchen doing her French homework, because she's in AP French she's finding it a little difficult and I end up doing most of it, but test her at the end and she remembers everything, because she's smart really just a little lazy sometimes. Then she starts telling me about a boy at school, and how he's just like how I described you when we were teenagers. Of course she's too scared to tell you, because she doesn't want to upset you, and certainly doesn't want to scare the crap out of the boy. Then Hanna announces herself into the kitchen, she'd been round for ages with Emily but they both got bored of French and went to play with the kids in the lounge. Hanna heard the word 'boy' and rushed back in. Hanna and Emily decides she needs some new clothes to impress this mystery guy, and we spend hours shopping before we end up buying a beautiful dress, and when you see it on her you say 'my little princess is growing up' and she says back 'Daddy, I'll always your little princess'" Spencer didn't even realise tears were running full force down her face so quick that Toby's fingers couldn't stop them.

"That's quite the fantasy you've cooked up there" Toby laughed a deep, hearty laugh. It gave Spencer hope. Hope that he believed the same.

"That's because maybe, just maybe, one day that'll be our reality"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hello readers! I'd like to start off by saying a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed or has put this story on their favourite list, thank you so much, I appreciate all the support given. Also, 11 reviews for the first chapter?! Wow I wasn't expecting that at all! **

**As promised, here is Chapter 2 posted after I got 10 reviews and give or take a week later, I hope you all enjoy it. If you do, please review/favourite/follow. Push for 12 reviews for Chapter 3?**

"Jack, come on!" Spencer called from the front door. Toby and Spencer were going to go over to the new house tonight and start unpacking, and Emily was going to babysit the boys until tomorrow evening and drive them up to join them. The plan was to leave half an hour ago, but Jack was about as organized as Ezra, even when there was nothing left to pack. Removal men took everything a couple of hours ago, apart from the things Jack and Wyatt needed to stay with Emily and whatever Toby and Spencer wanted to travel with in the car, so mainly a lot of personal things.

A couple minutes later Jack came trailing down the stairs with his backpack "Ok I'm ready"

"What took you so long?" Toby laughed as he ruffled Jack's messy curls that were clearly inherited from his biological father. Jack shrugged a little and pointed to his rucksack.

"I just wanted to look through the box one last time in the place I was given it" He had an eye for sacred, meaningful moments just like Aria did. The box was a present Spencer and Toby gave Jack on his tenth birthday last year just as he started to ask more and more. It was obvious he wasn't biologically related to Spencer and Toby; he looked nothing like them, and he knew that from day one. Anyway, the box was full of pictures and small things belonging to Aria and Ezra that Spencer managed to scavenge from their room at the mental institution. It took a few days for him to look through the whole box, as he asked many questions about each photo, each earring, and each book.

"_Is this them?" Jack asked, direct Spencer's attention to the photo in his hands, the first photo he'd ever seen of them._

"_Yep, that's them outside New York Art Gallery" Spencer said softly "Ar-Your Mom is 19 there, and your Dad's 27 I think"_

"_She's beautiful" He whispered in awe "How old was she when...you know..."_

"_21, and she hadn't aged a bit since that picture" Spencer laughed. If she laughed, perhaps she wouldn't start to tear up remembering the last time she saw Aria. Jack still listened as his hands worked their way busily through the box, settling on a piece of paper that was all ripped at the edges. _

"_B-26, It's a number, It's a song, It's a girl" Jack read slowly "Did Dad write this?"_

"_That's right bud, he wrote it for her when we were still in high school" Spencer had already told Jack how they met, despite being ten he was very mature about it and listened intently. He said it was very romantic, even though it was illegal, but that just added to the romance. _

"_Were they good people?" He asked quietly in a cracked voice, and Spencer saw his tear drops on the photograph. She put an arm around Jack's shoulder and pulled him into her side. _

"_They were the nicest, sweetest, most caring people in the world" Spencer started, reminiscing the _real _Aria. "Your Mom was beautiful, just like you said. She loved to read, write, paint; name anything to do with expressing yourself and she'd be doing it. Your Father was the same, and that's why they went so well together. Nothing got in their way, not even the law" She swallowed loudly before continuing her edited story "When the car accident happened, your Dad could have climbed out of the car and lived, but he didn't. He refused to leave your Mom to die, because he knew she wouldn't make it out alive. He stuck by her right until the end"_

_By this time, Jack was quietly sobbing into Spencer. _

"_Did they love me?" Jack finally asked, although the question was a little muffled._

"_Yes" Spencer choked out "They love you so much, there up in heaven watching you and looking after you, every step you take"_

"It's ok, bud" Spencer smiled sadly "You all set to go now then?" Jack nodded and stood by Wyatt, the two already bursting into conversation as they left their house for the last time, and would never step through the door again.

XXXXX

"Yes Hanna we're nearly there...yes I'll send you pictures...yes you can come as soon as we've unpacked..." Spencer laughed down the phone to Hanna. She was full of questions about when they could come visit and when they were going to have their first dinner party and when are they going to get there.

"Spence we're just about to pull up" Toby told her, slowing his speed down considerably so they could find the house since the neighbourhood wasn't all too familiar to them yet. Spencer nodded and held a finger up to his lips to quieten him. He bit it gently to get her to move it away.

"Ok Han I've got to go, we're about to pull up" She listened to Hanna ramble on with more questions before she finally had to stop her. "Hanna I'm going to hang up now, bye"

"What was she going on about now?" Toby asked as he turned a sharp corner up a small hill.

"It would be easier to ask what she _wasn't _going on about" Spencer replied with an eye-roll and slight headshake. She looked out the window as Toby parked in the driveway designated to their new house. "I swear every time we come it looks bigger"

Toby had a huge smile plastered on his face, intertwining his fingers with Spencer's. "It's our home"

XXXXX

Spencer stood in the doorway of what would be Grace's bedroom. She was sure that she would have loved it. It had a massive wardrobe that even Hanna would be remotely satisfied with, and a cute window seat that was to die for. Feeling a pair of arms slide round her waist, Spencer leant back into the familiar muscular build stood behind her.

"Should we unpack her stuff?" He asked quietly, laying soft kisses on every inch of Spencer's neck and partially unveiled shoulder.

"I don't know" Spencer shrugged. She'd been saying that a lot recently. "She'd be thirteen now, and her room wouldn't look like what it did when she was three" She was right. They had to stop imagining her as a toddler and start imagining her as a teenager, a mini adult, because when they get her back, she won't be three.

"It's better than nothing. At least when she does come home she'll be coming home to something, not just an empty room" Toby mumbled into Spencer's shoulder, causing her skin to tingle in the sweetest of ways, a way only he could. Smiling, she turned herself around in his arms so their faces were millimetres apart. She played with the stray hairs on the bottom of Toby's head as she said-

"You're right" Spencer took a deep breath in. "We've done the kitchen, most of the living room and our bedroom, we may as well make a start in here"

They sat crossed legged on the floor, surrounded by some of Grace's things that they had rummaged from the cardboard boxes around them. Every little thing brought back memories. Toby pulled out an old blanket that he fondly remembered being fuchsia pink, but with time the colour had faded and become much paler.

"She could never sleep without that blanket" Spencer laughed. "I remember when she was about eight months old, and we'd spent the day at the park and when we got home we realised Grace had left it there"

"How could I forgot, she wouldn't stop crying until she got it back"

_Spencer had to push Toby back into the cushions of the sofa to stop him running straight upstairs as soon as the sound of Grace's crying wound its way into his ears._

"_I know it's not nice hearing her cry, but we have to leave her for a little bit so she knows we aren't going to go in there just to give her attention" Spencer said gently, slowly running her hand through the hair round Toby's right ear. _

"_Fine" Toby huffed immaturely. "Ten minutes then I'm going up there" Toby set his timer, much to Spencer's amusement, and awkwardly settled back into the sofa, although he couldn't really pay attention to the film with Grace's crying masking anything the actors were saying. The sound of his foot hitting the wooden floor again and again eventually got way too annoying, so Spencer released Toby after only seven minutes. He was up in the nursery within five seconds. "Hi princess, no need to cry Daddy's here now" He cooed, drawing careless patterns on Grace's cheek which usually soothed her, but not tonight. Giving up after a few minutes, Toby reached in and took Grace is his arms, leaning her up against is chest. Her cries only stopped for a second while she adjusted herself in Toby's strong arms, and then she resumed crying. Clearly, Grace wasn't planning on going back to sleep anytime soon, so once he'd controlled her crying to a gentle weeping, Toby took her downstairs to Spencer._

"_There's my baby girl" Spencer smiled widely, sitting up properly on the sofa since she'd been sprawled across it the whole time Toby had been in the nursery with Grace. She reached her arms out for her, and Toby sat Grace down on the sofa next to her Mom, but being on her own only made her scream louder. "Oh baby, what's wrong" She pulled Grace on to her knee and bounced her a little. _

"_I don't know, but I can't stop her crying" Toby sighed. "Maybe she caught something at the park today?"_

_Spencer shook her head after pressing her hand against Grace's forehead. "I don't think so, she isn't feeling warm. This would be so much easier if she could talk" _

"_She can make useless noises" Toby pointed out with a laugh, picking up Grace from Spencer's lap and swinging her around in the air above his head. For some reason, that calmed her down enough to talk her usual baby-babble, although a huge frown was still evident on her miniature-Spencer face._

"_B...b" Grace mumbled repeatedly. Eventually, her murmurs re-formed into tears. It took probably too long for Toby to piece everything together. _

"_Her blanket!" He nearly squealed in delight. "We must have dropped it at the park" Spencer sighed contently, now happy knowing Grace wasn't crying because she was ill or hurt. Toby passed Grace back to Spencer and left them both with a kiss on the forehead before practically sprinting out of the door without even picking up his coat. _

_There must have been adrenaline pumping through his veins, because 7 degree temperature wasn't affecting Toby as much as he thought it would. Probably because there was only one thing on his mind, and that was finding Grace's pink blanket. It was times like this that he was incredibly thankful that Hanna had chosen to by it in fuchsia pink, because it stuck out like a sore thumb hung up on a bench, even in the darkness. He quickly grabbed it and was immediately taken aback by its slight dampness. He hadn't even noticed it was spitting with rain. _

"_I found it!" Toby called as he returned home, waving the blanket around in the air. Grace's face lit up with joy and she crawled over to Toby's feet, but Spencer looked absolutely shattered. "I'm going to put it in the wash first"_

"_Great" Spencer rolled her eyes and went to retrieve Grace from the floor. Clearly she was tired, otherwise she would jump at the chance to stay up and play with Grace. "I'll go, I don't know; try distracting her in the living room for a while"_

"_No babe, go to bed" Toby insisted, tucking a free curl behind Spencer's ear. "I've got this" She gave him an appreciative smile and kissed his cheek before placing Grace on the floor and starting her trek to the bedroom. "It's just you and me now, princess. Let's go get this in the wash"_

_Grace seemed completely astounded watching the washing machine go round and round and round for a whole hour, and sat crossed legged right in front of it, never moving. She was mesmerized by the machinery, and Toby couldn't help but laugh and take hundred of snapshots to show Spencer in the morning. Toby's heart melted when the washing machine stopped and Grace stuck her bottom lip out. It had to be the sweetest thing he thought he'd ever seen. Leaving her with a soft kiss on her head, Toby moved Grace onto his hip so he could retrieve the blanket from the finished washing machine and hang it to dry. _

_Getting restless, Grace was no longer amused by Toby's funny face pulling. The blanket wasn't anywhere near dry yet, and it had been hung up on the radiator for an hour. Toby had tried once or twice to take Grace up to the nursery with no avail. Both times she shrieked bloody murder. "Come on baby, go to sleep for Daddy" He begged repeatedly, but again Grace stared at him like it was crazy. Finally, an idea sprung up in Toby's mind. Spencer's hairdryer always dried her hair in ten minutes flat. If it could do hair that quick, surely it could do the same with a little blanket? Picking Grace up on the way, Toby went up to their bedroom to get the hairdryer. Unfortunately, Grace was under the impression that he was capturing her to take her to the nursery, and recommenced crying loudly, loud enough to wake Spencer before they even stepped foot in the room. _

"_Is she still not going to sleep?" Spencer asked as she tried to rouse herself from the very pleasant sleep she was having. Toby shook his head and mumbled 'no', sitting Grace in the concave of Spencer's stomach. _

"_Where's your hairdryer?" He rummaged through all of her drawers but failed to find it. _

"_Bathroom, second drawer down" She had managed to wake herself up enough to sit up against the headboard of the bed and sit Grace in between her legs so she could see her face. Toby rushed through to the bathroom and tore open the second drawer down to reveal the night's saviour. A hairdryer. Wasting no time, he went back into the bedroom and plugged it into the nearest socket and once turned on, Toby pointed the head of it at the blanket and waited. _

"_It took a while, but it was worth it" Toby whispered as he stared down at his sleeping daughter, who was cuddling tightly to the freshly cleaned blanket between himself and Spencer on their bed. _

"_You're an amazing Dad" Spencer smiled, scuttling her hands through his hair. "I don't know what you were worrying about"_

Both Spencer and Toby had tears stabbing the back of their eyes. The memories were always too much to handle, even today, but they couldn't stop reliving them. It gave them more hope; it brought their daughter back to them in their minds.

Distracting herself from more painful memories, Spencer kept herself busy by searching through the box to her right, looking for anything they could put out in her room. Her hands landed on a big book about the size of an encyclopaedia titled: _The 50 states of North America. _

"What's that?" Toby asked, pointing to the book in her shaky hands.

"A book Emily brought Grace when you were in the hospital" They equally flinched upon hearing/speaking the name. It still hurt. "She used to tell me all about Alabama, and how if we would run away we'd go there" The clogs slowly churned in her brain until ending on a conclusion.

"There in Alabama" Spencer and Toby reached the theory at the same time. Spencer flicked through the book, opening one of the first pages on Alabama. Shaking, her hands could no longer support the heavy weight of the book and it fell the short distance to the floor with a strident 'thud'. Underneath the title was a thick, red line done in lipstick. In exactly Alison's colour.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Hi! 13 reviews last chapter? Thank you so much! Sorry it took a bit long to get it up after I promised I'd post it after 12 reviews, but I had very little time to write this week so could only get it up now and I feel really bad, so sorry about that.**

**So, here's Chapter 3! As always favourite/follow/review! 15 reviews for Chapter 4? (Which is going to be a big one!)**

Hanna and Caleb drove up to the house late that night after receiving a very unusual call from Spencer who only said there was an SOS and had to get there as soon as possible. Making a short detour to Ashley's house to drop off Chloe on route, they made it up to Montgomery County in a little over half an hour thanks to the lack of traffic. Not even bothering to knock, Caleb and Hanna sauntered through the maze of half-empty cardboard boxes to the partly made up living room which consisted of a three people sofa and a TV. The rest of the room had maps and holiday brochures to Alabama sprawled across the floor, all pointing the Spencer and Toby sat in the middle splitting their gazes between an IPad and an encyclopaedia sized book. Clearly neither of them heard their friend's emergency arrival as neither of them tore their eyes from the floors.

"Hey Spence I got your SOS" Hanna said loudly. She smirked slightly when Toby and Spencer jumped a little upon hearing the little blonde speak, and smirked even more when she noticed Caleb also internally laughing at the pair's reaction. "So, your emergency is your going on holiday to Alabama and you don't know which road to take?"

Spencer shot her a glare before replying a few seconds later. "We know where Grace is"

Everyone heard Caleb take in a sharp, quick breath after hearing the news. Hanna's knees went weak-so weak jelly could hold her up better and she half collapsed before Caleb caught her when she was centimetres from hitting the floor. Caleb was the first to recover, and asked the question playing on his own and Hanna's mind-

"Where is she?" He asked, instinctively tightening his grip around Hanna's waist, but not so tense to hurt her. Spencer then blasted him another glare that was very comparable to the one she gave Hanna, except it was more of a 'are you actually that dumb?' than 'shut up'. "Right, Alabama"

Hanna jumped in to save her husband from making a further fool of himself. "Well, how'd you work it out?"

"We were digging through some of her old stuff-" Toby started explaining; although his words trailed off as he was now drawing on the map the easiest route to the centre of Alabama. He sharply snapped himself back into a more attentive state of mind. "-and we found an old book Emily had brought her when I was in the hospital"

Spencer picked the rest up from there. "I told her that we could run away there someday, and she told me all the things she thought was cool about Alabama that she learnt in a book Emily brought her" She held up the book in her hands. "And here it is. Then I had an epiphany of sort, and flicked to the Alabama page. Take a look" Spencer pushed the book across the polished wooden floorboards to where Caleb and Hanna had propped themselves up against the arm on the sofa closest to their friends. Confusion crossed Caleb's face immediately, where as something in Hanna's brain clicked in less than a second.

"Its jungle red" She whispered, her fingers lightly tracing the squiggly line underneath the Alabama heading. "Alison's colour" Spencer nodded and leaned over the maps to point out more marks at the bottom of the same page.

"It looks like she's tried to leave an address at the bottom of the page" Spencer said."It's a little smudged, but I think its Elm Street, so I put that into Google Maps" She opened up a tab on her Ipad and presented it to Hanna and Caleb. "It came up with this street"

"How do you know it's that street?" Caleb asked. Surely it was just a street?

"Well I didn't, but I put it into street view so I could see if there was any clues" She fiddled about on the screen for a few seconds before double-tapping in and zooming in on a particularly large house on the end of the street. "I saw this" In the window of the focused house there was a hazy shadow looking outwards onto the road. Squinting, Caleb and Hanna both quickly came to the same conclusion on it. It's Alison. The all too familiar golden locks were a dead giveaway.

"Wait" Hanna begun once the clogs in her brain had started to turn again. "Why would Ali kidnap Grace and then leave clues telling you where she is?"

"We don't know yet" Toby piped up, still looking intently at the maps as he has been since they worked out the address. "But we're going to find out. Me and Spence are leaving tonight, we've packed our bags and we're going to Alabama. You need to tell Em what we are doing, but just tell Jack and Wyatt we're still unpacking so they can't come up just yet"

"You're not going alone" Caleb said firmly. "Who knows what could happen? It's too dangerous"

"In that case we aren't going to ask you to put yourselves in danger" Toby retorted, picking up the bags and maps next to him and offering his hand out for Spencer to take.

"You're not asking us, we're telling you" Hanna said certainly, and got up along with them. "Make a quick stop at our house before we go, I swear to god I've gotten really good at packing"

XXXXX

The four of them piled into Spencer's black SUV, and after making a fifteen minute stop at Hanna and Caleb's house, they were on the road to Alabama. Spencer had created a rotation system, where everyone would drive for two hours and once everybody had done that, they'd stop at the next motel that they see and hope it had vacant rooms at one in the morning, which Spencer estimated would be the time that they stop. Currently, they were on the second rotation, meaning Hanna was driving and Caleb was in the passenger seat next to her, leaving Spencer and Toby in the backseats together, cuddled up and thankful for the blacked out windows.

"Maybe she'll still remember some of the French I taught her" Spencer pondered, a smile crossing her face at the memory popping into her mind.

"When on earth did you teach her French?" Toy laughed, and Spencer felt the ripple of happiness run through his veins and warmed her body.

"When you were in the hospital and Emily would come over to help with the kids, and would usually end up playing with Jack and Wyatt, and I'd do something with Grace" She explained. "She never really wanted to watch TV or a film on her own, and I had some studying to do for that massive French exam I had, and Gracie looked very interested in it"

_Spencer sat on her bed surrounded by French books and dictionaries, with a laptop sat in the middle of it all. Fortunately, Emily was downstairs playing with Jack and Wyatt quietly, and Grace was colouring in her room, and these circumstances made Spencer capable of doing her so needed studying. Unfortunately, Grace interrupted her just as she began to settle into memorising some new infinitive verbs. _

"_What's wrong baby?" Spencer asked, pushing her books and papers aside to make room for Grace to squirm her way onto the bed. "Do you want to watch a film on Netflix?" Grace nodded curtly and waited for Spencer to load up Netflix on the laptop, sacrificing her Google Translate. She pulled up Frozen and placed it in front of Grace._

"_Can you watch it with me?" Grace asked with her bottom lip stuck out. She only really liked watching films with Spencer or Toby. Spencer groaned inside. _

"_I really want to baby but I have to do all this work" She sighed, leaning over and kissing Grace's forehead. "I promise I'll listen to it" Grace's head shook a little and she pushed to laptop away. _

"_I want to do what you're doing" Grace proclaimed, looking at the papers Spencer was surrounded by. She started to laugh but eventually agreed. Perhaps it could be fun teaching her three year old daughter French. _

"_Baby I'm doing French, it's a different language that people in France and a lot of Canada speak in" Spencer explained. "Bonjour means Hello"_

"_Bonjour" Grace repeated in a near perfect French accent. "Like that?"_

"_Perfect! You're a quick learner" She praised, mentally making a note to give her a sweet later. _

"_Am I going to be smart like you Mommy?"_

"_Gracie" Spencer whispered. "You're going to be a lot smarter than me"_

Toby caught the tear that was slowly swaying down Spencer's cheek with his thumb. It escaped from the back of Spencer's watery eyes about halfway through her account of the day she gave Grace a French lesson.

"How much did you get through?" Toby asked after a substantial length of silence.

"She learnt how to talk about family before Emily had called as down saying she'd cooked dinner" Spencer chuckled, remembering it all fondly now instead of through tears.

"So more than you managed to teach me?" He teased lightly with a smile.

"Yeah I admit that I wasn't the _best _French teacher back then, I didn't really teach you much" Spencer admitted. Suddenly, Toby framed Spencer's face with his large hands and turned it so they were looking eye to eye.

"Listen to me" Toby said in a low, sultry voice that Spencer had to strain slightly to hear. "You taught me the most important thing of all: That I'm not a monster, and it is possible for me to be loved by the most perfect, beautiful woman on earth, not matter how much the odds are against me"

XXXXX

"I can't believe they only had one room is this stinking place" Hanna moaned for the umpteenth time in the past fifteen minutes they've been in the motel room. In all fairness the motel was tiny and on the edge of the motorway, but Spencer's GPS didn't read another motel in the next fifty miles, leaving them no other option than to stay in a double bedded room at this run down motel.

"Go have a shower and relax, we'll sort out the sleeping arrangements" Caleb smiled, planting a lingering kiss on her lips to silence her before ushering her into the tiny bathroom that was sure not to satisfy Hanna's cleansing needs. "So Spence, you and Hanna can take the bed and me and Toby will take the floor?"

"No way" She immediately interjected. "You two take the bed. We dragged you on this trip, so you guys deserve the bed, and I think Hanna would prefer that, too" Caleb laughed a little at his wife's expense as he leapt onto the old, rickety bed, signalling his agreement to Spencer's proposal.

Somehow, Caleb had managed to track down a Thai food take out a couple of miles away, and offered to go pick up dinner, although since it was one in the morning, it could be classed as breakfast. Hanna was still mumbling away to herself about the standards of the facility, but eventually called her Mom to ask how Chloe was. That left Spencer and Toby to raid the closet for pillows and blankets. Fortunately there were two pillows and a handful of blankets that they could create a makeshift bed from.

"Tobes have you got a spare shirt?" Spencer asked, not being able to find her vest top of which she was almost certain she had packed. Toby had a very smug look on his face.

"You're lucky I packed one" He said teasingly and dug through to the bottom of his bag to clasp his hands around a blue shirt with anchors on. "Here" Spencer caught it with ease and studied the pattern on it.

"You kept this shirt? Its fifteen years old" She laughed while she pulled it over her head, moving her hips extra just to taunt Toby.

"Well, you just look just so good in it I keep it for emergencies like these" Toby spoke in a very flirtatious tone, and he took Spencer's hands and gently pulled her down onto the floor next to him in their pile of blankets. He started depositing soft kisses all across her neck as he whispered against her skin. "Hanna's outside on the phone, she said she'd be around half an hour..."

Shivering at the feel of Toby's hot breath on her exposed skin, Spencer forced herself to pay attention to his silky words. "She could walk back in at any minute" Toby abruptly stopped and collapsed into the blankets.

"Ok then" He shrugged and started flicking through a book nonchalantly, leaving Spencer with a look of shock habiting her face, but before she could say anything, Caleb entered the room with bags of Thai food.

"Hanna's coming in soon, we can start without her" Caleb smiled. Placing the bags on the floor, Caleb passed the designated food to the correct person, and also promised Hanna joined them shortly after.

XXXX

Well-rested and still with the taste of Green Chicken Curry in their mouths, the group headed out on their second leg of the journey to Alabama. This time Toby started the drive with Caleb in the passenger seat and Hanna and Spencer were in the back.

"Spence I'm getting a call from Emily, do you want to answer it?" Hanna offered her phone to Spencer. Of course she'd told Emily what they were doing, but she had yet time to call Jack and Wyatt to talk to them. Of all the people she would have to lie to, the last she wants it to be is her children. Spencer nodded and took it.

"Hey Em" Spencer practically sung. "How are you?"

"_I'm good"_ Emily replied sceptically and quietly. _"How close to Alabama are you?"_

"About seven hours" She said.

"_I've got two boys tugging on my arm begging to put you on speaker, can I do it?"_

Spencer laughed before replying-"Sure, I'm itching to talk to them as well"

'_Ok your on speaker' _was shortly followed by what seemed like an orchestra of _'MOM'. _Everyone in the car laughed, and once Spencer had contained herself she started to speak.

"Hi boys" Spencer said. "Are you behaving for Auntie Emily and Uncle Jason?"

"_Yes"_ Spencer recognised the voice immediately as belonging to Jack, who was as per usual answering for himself and his brother. _"When can we come up to the house? I'm running out of clothes-"_

"You've only been there for a night, which is how long you would have been there anyway"

"_But what am I suppose to wear today?" _Wyatt interrupted. _"Auntie Hanna said you can't wear the same outfit two days in a row"_

"Well today's an exception then" Hanna shouted loud enough for them to hear on the other end of the phone. "As long as you don't go anywhere you went yesterday"

"_We miss you, Mom" _Jack diverted the phone call. _"It doesn't matter that the house isn't fully unpacked yet, we can come help!" _His statement was followed by a hummed agreement from Wyatt. Spencer could only hope that no one else heard her heart breaking into a million pieces in her chest. The boys missed her, and she missed the boys.

"I'm sorry bud" Spencer said, unsuccessfully covering up her cracking voice. "We just...don't want you to get hurt taking out plates and knives"

"_Mom, are you crying?" _Wyatt asked, completely shrugging off the last comment. _"I can hear it in your voice, Dad told me your voice goes funny when you're crying, but I don't think it's very funny"_

"I'm just sad because I miss you two a lot. Can you ask Auntie Em to take me off speaker and give the phone to you?" After a few moments of jumbling, Wyatt informed her that it is just him and her.

"_Mom why are you so sad?" _Wyatt asked quietly. _"Isn't Dad there to make you feel better?"_

"I just really really miss you, and when you love someone a lot, it hurts a lot to leave them, because you never know what the situation will be when you get back to them" Spencer explained in the best way she could. "Dad is here, but he's dr-drilling some holes in the wall for you to hang up all your baseball medals"

"_Can I talk to him?"_

"He's a little busy at the moment Wy, but I'll get him to call Auntie Em as soon as he can, ok?"

"_Okay. I think Auntie Em wants me to hang up now. I love you Mom"_

"I love you too Wyatt" As soon as the line fell dead, Spencer broke down in tears. She'd just lied to her sons, something that she made a promise to Toby they'd never do. Hanna unbuckled her seatbelt and slid over to hold Spencer, the actions that Spencer would usually prevent happening if it wasn't for the guilt running through her veins. The car came to a slow stop.

"Hanna, swap places with me?" Toby advocated, although it was more of an instruction than question since he was already out the door before Hanna had the time to answer. Feeling the shapes of different arms around her shivering body, Spencer looked up into Toby's eyes.

"I lied" She wept. "I lied to our babies"

"You lied for a good reason" Toby said softly. "I don't think they'd understand if we explained that we are on our way to Alabama to try finding their missing sister"

XXXXX

Spencer felt the car jig, waking her up. She didn't realise she had slept the whole second half of the journey, as now Caleb was pulling the car up on the side of the road. Looking to her right, Spencer caught a glimpse of the house that was on the Google Maps page.

"Is that...the house?" Toby asked Caleb, not too sure how to say it. He must have only just woken up, too, since his voice was equally as raspy as Spencer's would be if she talked.

"Yep" Caleb nodded wearily. "What now?"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Hello everyone! Thank you so so much for all the reviews for the last chapter, again my expectations were exceeded! As always, I try to post the next as quickly as possible after receiving a certain amount of reviews, but sometimes it can be hard as I'm usually quite busy. I hope it hasn't been too long, and here's Chapter 4! Apologize if it doesn't live up to anyone's hopes, but please enjoy!**

**Another 15 reviews for Chapter 5 (which is sure to be a big one!)? Please follow/favorite/review! xxx**

The ten metre walk up the driveway of the house seemed to drag out a lot longer than it should have. Toby had to keep a tight hold on Spencer's hand to keep her grounded on earth. That and to stop her hand from uncontrollably shaking. Towering high, the large brown front door and hairline cracks in various places and the handle looked a lot looser than most, as if somebody had been trying to escape. Escape. Had Grace been trying to get out? And if so, who was she trying to get away from? Alison? Or somebody even more sinister?

With a slight hesitation while silently preparing himself for what was about to happen, Toby used his empty hand to grasp onto the cold, rusty door handle. If they were right and they had interpreted the markings in the book right, their daughter, who had been missing for ten years, who had missed ten of her brother's birthdays, her first day of school, her first time to ride a bike, was possibly behind this door. All that was between him and his Gracie was a plank of weak looking wood. A plank of wood that would easily go down with the tap of a foot. Clearly Hanna was also thinking the same thing as without a second thought she raised her high-heeled foot and shoved it against the side of the handle, missing Toby's hand by less than a centimetre and successfully it swung the door wide open, revealing a long, dirty looking corridor at a first glance.

"Thanks, Hanna" Toby mumbled. "I was just about to do it"

"I know" Hanna said. "I thought maybe you just need a nudge. Literally"

In unspoken unison, one by one the group stepped into the hallway, Toby first followed by Spencer, then Hanna, then Caleb. Still with a death lock on Spencer's hand, Toby led the four of them to the end of the corridor, that was ridden with dust and cobwebs along the skirting boards. Frequently did one of them trip up on one of the floorboards sticking out, or step onto a loose nail. Anger built up in every single one of the four as they slowly came to the conclusion that this is possibly the place Grace has been living in for ten years.

There was a door at the end, one very similar to the front door. "Are you going to open it this time or shall I kick it again?" Hanna said, foot raised.

"I've got it" Toby said, and he did. He pushed down slowly on the handle and then swung it open with as much power as he could beckon. Behind the door, a large, empty room was revealed, that previous owners probably used as a living room.

"I think we should split here" Spencer thought out loud. "Me and Toby will go upstairs. Hanna, Caleb, you two can look around down here, try find anything that could help us" Caleb and Hanna nodded without resistance and Toby followed Spencer up the stairs at the edge of the room, that were equally as creaky as the floorboards in the corridor and held the same unsafe feeling. With every step up, the stairs seemed to shake a little bit more than the subsequent one. Rushing up, Spencer and Toby made it to the top in seconds. A singular door was in front of them.

There was a clanking noise coming from the inside that could just be heard when Spencer pressed her ear up against the door. The sound was familiar but then again not, like she had heard it in a film but not real life. It was like a metal chain hitting something wooden.

Without wavering, Spencer rocked the door open quickly. Her eyes what shut and so were Toby's. Both were scared to see what they would find. And so they should be.

A small gasp escaped Spencer's and Toby's lips. Right in front of them was a girl, knees pressed against her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. She looked skinny from a distance, and probably about two or three inches shorter than Spencer. From the back of the girl's head, her head was sprawling wildly from every inch of her head, and it was the same chocolate brown light curls as Spencer's. Realization hit Toby and Spencer at the same time.

"Grace" They both whispered in unison. She flinched, not bringing her head up. Without warning, Spencer released Toby's hand, patting it slightly as reassurance before taking careful steps towards the rickety, metal bar bed Grace was on.

"Grace, it's me" Spencer said softly, trying desperately to keep her voice calm, although that was virtually impossible. Her daughter, of whom she was beginning to think she'd never see again, was, sat metres away from her, cowering in fear and looking very malnourished. "Your Mom. We've come to get you"

Grace stopped shaking, as previously she was, and her whole body seemed to take on a slightly more relaxed persona. Could it be possible that she still remembers her? Riskily, Spencer places her hand gently around Grace's wrist to uncross her arms, and although a little stiff, Grace let her with little fight. She kept her arms on her wrists while she talked to her.

"I don't know if you'll remember us, but we're your real Mom and Dad. Ten years ago you were taken away from us, but now we've come back to get you" Spencer said in the same tone as before. "I promise that we won't hurt you. We don't know who has, but they will pay for it. Right now baby, we need to go, in case the person who's been hurting you comes back"

"He said he wouldn't hurt me" Grace mumbled through her knees. "He's going to come back. He always comes back"

"Who is he?" Spencer pressed."We can take you away from him" At this point, tears were streaming down her face as well as Toby's. She just wanted Grace to look up.

As if hearing her thoughts, Grace brought her head up from the safety of her knees. If anyone held any doubt whether or not this girl was Grace, they wouldn't anymore. Her eyes were still the exact same replica as Spencer's, just like they were when she was three. The rest of her facial features also held a striking resemblance. "Mom" It was as if Grace wasn't listening to anything Spencer had just said, like she was ignoring Spencer and was talking through her thoughts. Not anymore. Now she was staring Spencer dead in the eyes as tears stabbed at the back of them. "Dad" Toby took this as a cue to step forward.

"That's right baby" Spencer said through tears. "We're here" Unexpectedly, Grace leapt forward towards Spencer's arms, but was harshly restrained by a contraption on her ankle. Neither Spencer nor Toby had previously noticed this metal restraint. Grace looked at it with a sad face.

"I can't get it off" She said quietly.

"I've got it" Toby said, moving towards the chain that was connected to the wall and holding it in his hands.

"Dad, I've tried to-" Grace started, but was cut off when Toby ripped apart the chain with his bare hands. "That must have hurt, Dad"

"Not nearly as much as seeing my daughter like this" He replied in a shaky voice before holding his arms out for Grace to now freely launch into. He held her tightly against his chest with one arm and pulled Spencer in with the other, reuniting them together as the family they have always been. He alternated kisses on the forehead between Spencer and Grace.

"Come on" Spencer said. "Let's go home" Right now, it didn't matter what had happened over the past ten years. Suddenly, it didn't matter who had done it. That could all be worked out in the safety of their own home that would be complete upon Grace's return, because no matter how much Spencer or Toby tried to deny it, there was always something obviously missing from them. Not even Alison's didn't even cross her mind. "Hanna and Caleb are probably downstairs waiting for us"

Grace's eyes lit up considerably. "Auntie Hanna and Uncle Caleb are here?" Spencer and Toby nodded with the same smile on their faces. Grace remembered her Auntie and Uncle. They weren't expecting what's next. "Have they found Alison?" Their smiles were replaced with confusion in the blink of an eye.

Toby was the first to speak, his voice echoing in the hollow room of which they were still in for some unknown reason. "Do you know where she is?"

Tears built up in Grace's eyes. "H-he took her this morning, I don't know where. He doesn't usually lock me in here, only when I was younger" Her voice began to crack. "But then I stopped, because every time I tried to get out, he'd hurt Alison" By now, Grace was weeping into Toby's chest, soaking his shirt. Spencer tried her hardest to soothe her so she could ask the most important question.

"Grace" She breathed. "Who is he? The one who took Alison?" Grace took a handful of unsteady breaths before answering.

"Wren, Wren Kingston" Grace said. Never had Spencer or Toby heard a name that physically made them want to puke. Over the years, Wren had become quite an unexpected family friend. After all he'd helped heal Toby after the car crash; he'd given Jack and Wyatt their jabs when they were babies; stitched Jack up when he fell off his bike. He'd always been there for the family at the most convenient of times, even when sometimes that seemed impossible unless he was like stalking them or something. Then it clicked. He had been. That's why he just 'happened' to be the first doctor to see Toby at the hospital after the crash' that's how he just 'happened' to be the only doctor not seeing a patient after Jack fell off his bike. That's how he managed to convince the hospital to allow Toby on a day out from the hospital.

"None of it was a coincidence" Spencer said gravely. "He'd planned it all"

"You took your time to work it out, didn't you Spence?" An all too familiar British voice spoke from the doorway. The three turned around to see none other than Wren stood, leaning on the doorframe casually, like he was trying to chat up a girl in a bar as opposed to being prepared to explain why he had kidnapped two girls and help them hostage in a disgusting house for ten years.

Toby moved protectively in front of his girlfriend and daughter, shuffling them behind his muscular body. "You son of a bitch"

A cocky smirked stretched across Wren's thin, red lips. "It's good to see you to, Toby" He said with a raised eyebrow. "I see you found Grace. What a pity you're not leaving with her"

It took all of Toby's efforts to not punch Wren square in the face. He wasn't about to turn violent, not just yet, anyway. "We're leaving Wren, and we're taking Grace with us, and there's nothing you can do to stop us" Wren shook his head with a menacing chuckle and dipped his hand into his back pocket to pull out something that Toby didn't recognise until the little light that had slipped through the cracked blinds bounced off the metal. A knife. Complete with a thin lining of fresh-looking blood.

"Nothing I can do" He smirked, spinning the tip of the knife on his finger with a disturbing grin. "But a lot this knife can do"

"You wouldn't dare" Toby spat. He moved back, pushing Spencer and Grace further away from Wren. Wren laughed sickly.

"That's funny" said Wren. "That's exactly what Alison said. In fact any second now we'll probably hear your friends find her" Seconds later an ear-deafening screamed shook the house, one that suited Hanna's pitch perfectly. "There we go"

Without thinking, Grace bolted out from behind her parents and past Wren, looking like she clipped the knife on her upper arm before sprinting to where the scream came from. Shocked, Wren moved to chase her, but Toby grabbed tightly onto his forearm and pulled him down onto the ground, and positioned himself on the ground over him so he had one leg of either side of Wren's body and the knife fell and spun across the floor towards Spencer's feet.

"Spencer" He said, realising she was too shocked to move. "Follow Grace downstairs and find Alison, then call the police" Spencer nodded, staring at a dot in the distance, and trailed down the stairs in a daze, leaving Toby alone with Wren.

"What are you going to do now?" Wren asked, still with a strong smirk painted on his bruised face. "Are you going to kill me? I'd like to see that"

"It's a shame you won't then" Toby retorted. "Maybe I should film it. I'm sure there's a line of people who'd want to see you die after they find out what you've done to my daughter." Words were falling out of Toby's mouth, ones that wouldn't be said unless he was as angry as he was. Except the word 'angry' doesn't cover his emotions. Nothing does.

"You wouldn't dare" Wren hissed, slivers of spit being fired across Toby's face. He was right. Maybe Toby couldn't find it in his heart to kill a man, even after all the horrific things he'd done. But that didn't stop him from raising his clenched fist and punching Wren square across the jaw, on the nose and kneeing him hard in the stomach. Blood dripped slowly from Wren's nose and mouth as he curled into a foetus position on the floor, groaning upon every slight movement he made. Finally, Toby had managed to wipe the sick smirk off Wren's face.

Leaving Wren, not seeing him as so much of a threat anymore, Toby followed the path Spencer and Grace had took by following the footprints in the thick layer of dust. Soon he found himself stepping down into a basement, no longer following footprints but the sounds of a gently sobbing. They belonged to Hanna, Spencer and Grace. The three of them, along with a shirtless Caleb, were crowded around something on the floor. It wasn't until he made himself known in the room that Spencer turned around, opening up a crack in their tight-knit circle to reveal the thing they were huddled over like crows to carcass. Alison.

Toby wanted to speak, but his throat was too constricted to allow out any noise. There she was, Alison DiLaurentis, lying on the floor, curled up into the foetus position with what Toby now recognised as Caleb's shirt being pressed tightly to her stomach by Hanna, who ironically was the one who was most scared of blood. Apart from Grace, but Toby didn't know whether she'd gotten over that fear by now.

"Alison" Toby said, loud enough for everyone in the basement to realise he was there and turned to look at him, including Alison. It was strange. Although she was covered in bruises and scratches, sweat and tears, Alison still look beautiful. Not in a way that attracted Toby, but in a way of which he could not deny.

"Toby" Spencer said. "I need your shirt. The blood has already soaked through Caleb's"

"Spencer, don't" Alison strained. Her voice sounded painful, and very hoarse, similar to Aria's before she died. Was Alison going to be the same? End up being just another one of their dead friends? "I'm not going to make it"

This time, Grace stepped in to answer. "The ambulance will be here soon, you just need to hold on until they come"

"Grace is right" Hanna added, feeling weird to say Grace's name. "Please Alison, you can do it" Toby had already ripped off his shirt and bent down next to Alison's body in between Caleb and Spencer, making the quick procedure of swapping Caleb's drowsed shirt with his own clean one. Alison winced.

"Toby. Spencer" She groaned at the pain shooting through her weak veins. "You have to understand. Wren made me take Grace, or he said he'd kill you all. I had to make him believe I hated you, or he'd kill you. It was to hardest thing I've ever had to do" Spencer tried to stop her, but Ali pushed Spencer's hand away. "I tried my hardest to not let him lay a hand on Grace, I really did. You won't understand how sorry I am, for everything I've done. You should never had met me"

"Don't say that" Spencer's voice caught in her throat as she took Alison's hand, intertwining their fingers together. "Despite everything, you're one of the best things that have ever happened to me. You've kept Grace as safe as you can from Wren, and you left a clue to where you were, and now me and Toby have our daughter back. I can't be more thankful" She pressed a soft kiss on Ali's forehead. "Please don't go"

"You're Alison DiLaurentis" Hanna put in. "You were buried alive for god's sake and you still survived. You can't let a little knife in the stomach take you out" Regardless of the tense situation, everyone laughed under the breath. It was a beautiful sound, the sound of a collective laughing together over the same thing at the same time.

"Grace" Alison said. "Come here" Grace nodded and shifted over to Alison's head, kneeling down next to it and ready to listen. "You're going to go home soon, with your Mom and Dad. I'm probably not going to be there, but-"

"This sounds a lot like last words" Grace said, trying desperately to hold back her tears but failing miserably. "You promised that there'd never be last words" Alison smiled slightly and pushed back a stray curl of Grace's long locks.

"Sometimes promises have to be broken" Alison's voice cracked, signalling she was about to breakdown. "You have to trust me that they'll keep you safe from everything, just like I have. You'll go home and live a normal life, and there'll be no more Wren to hurt you. I'm sorry I've taken you away from your family, but overtime I hope you'll learn to forgive me"

"I've already forgiven you. I forgave you the moment you told me everything" Grace wept truthfully. "Please Alison, don't go"

"You don't need me anymore" Alison said, using up every last scrape of energy she could dig up. "But I need one thing from you, Grace"

"Anything"

"Find Felicity. I told her to run" Alison's eyes fluttered, the last glimpses Grace caught of her eyes looked vacant.

"Alison" Grace shouted, slapping Alison's cheek lightly. "Alison, don't go! Please!" Where before Alison's chest was moving unsteadily up and down in short bursts, now there was no movement to be seen. Toby was the first to take action, and pushed Grace gently out of the way to start CPR. Grace fell back into Spencer and sobbed loudly into her chest, mumbling things like 'she can't go' and 'please come back'. Spencer's teardrops fell and slid off Grace's hair while Hanna clutched onto Caleb's bare chest. Feeling lightheaded, Toby stopped with the CPR. It wasn't going to work. Alison DiLaurentis was dead. Finally dead.

"Wait" Spencer said. "Who's Felicity?"

Grace brought her head up from Spencer's chest, her eyes red and puffy. She spoke in a raspy, sore voice. "Ali's daughter"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hi! Long time no see! This authors note is kind of long, but feel free to skip it!**

**I've been very busy since I last updated, so subsequently this chapter took a while to write, but I hope is of better quality than the last. It only just missed out on fifteen reviews, it got thirteen of which I am still completely overwhelmed with and thankful for, and I do try to PM people expressing my gratitude.**

**I had a swimming competition last weekend which went ok, and my AMAZING best friend came to watch for the whole of the second day, which is really something. Honestly, watching paint dry is more interesting than watching eighteen heats of girls 50m Freestyle. I also know she reads my fanfictions, and will probably have a very very big smile on her face right about now! So I love you Jodie and thank you for watching me swim ;-)**

**I also went to see The Fault in Our Stars! I'm still not over it, I'm just a puddle of feels right now! Anyone else seen it? **

**Anyway, here is Chapter 5! Please enjoy, and please leave a review! Shoot for 15 reviews for Chapter 6 again? xx**

The room began to slowly spin around Spencer. Her eyes could no longer focus on the small details, such as Alison's vacant eyes or the bloody cut on Grace's cheek that was clearly days old. The feeling was familiar to when Spencer's mother had told her that Nana Hastings had passed away. Everything was a daze. Speaking brokenly, it was Grace that pulled Spencer out of her hypnosis.

"She's four years old" Grace said, answering Toby's question that Spencer hadn't heard while Caleb covered Alison's body with the clothes he had ripped from his body. "I think I might know where she is"

"What are we supposed to do with Ali?" Hanna asked from the corner, where she had curled up into a tight ball, protecting herself from the pain of losing yet another best friend. No, best friend didn't cut it. _Sister. _She'd lost a _sister._

"The ambulance should be here by now" Caleb said. "We have to think about what Alison would want us to do"

"We have to find Felicity, then" Spencer spoke up after listening to the conversation without any input. "It was her dying wish, right? Where do you think she is, Gracie?"

Grace thought for a few moments before wiping the tears off her cheeks. For now, she had to be strong. Crying could come later. "There's a storm shelter in the garden, that's where Ali" Anybody could hear the pain the laced her voice when she said 'Ali' "used to put me and Felicity if Wren ever came back drunk or in a bad mood. That's where she'd feel most safe"

"Would she feel threatened if all five of us went to get her?" Caleb asked. Grace nodded. "And she trusts you, right?" Grace nodded again. "Maybe you should go alone then, if she's only going to trust you"

"No way" Toby interjected immediately. "I'm not letting her out of my sight"

"Agreed" Spencer said, tightening her grip around Grace's frail body.

"I know you don't want to let her go on her own, but if it's the only way to get Felicity out of this place-" Hanna started, but Grace promptly stopped her.

"She'll trust my Mom and Dad" Grace said with a little sniff. "If they're with me"

"Well in that case, show us the way" Toby smiled, offering out two hands to pull up his girls.

XXXXX

Grace led her parents out into the backyard and down the side of the house, stopping above a large metal door that was on the ground. Looking around, it took Spencer a while to realise why Grace and Ali didn't just scale the brown fence that ran around the perimeter of the shattered house. There was barbed wire topping every last inch of it.

"Wren told the neighbours it was for the dogs he kept in the garden" Grace answered her mother's unasked question. "He doesn't have any dogs" Her voice was empty and held an element of darkness. Spencer guessed she'd have to get used to that voice, since all of Grace's memories of being held captive in this hell hole would probably be told like that. Not saying anymore, Grace bent down to the door that they were stood over and fiddled with the lock for a few minutes before pulling it open. "There aren't any steps, only a ladder that is a couple of feet off the ground"

"I'll go first" Toby said, letting go of Spencer's hand and approaching the hole. He hesitated slightly, then stepped down onto the ladder and started his descent downwards. After roughly eight steps, Toby hit the end of the ladder and slipped off the bottom, landing with a harsh 'bang'. Thankfully he landed on his stronger arm, and that cushioned the fall. Pain shot through his body like fire for a few seconds, but slowly began to burn out.

"Dad, are you alright?" Grace screamed, and Toby could see the outline of her shadow in the distance when he looked up to where he just came from. "Dad?"

"I'm fine" Toby called back. "That drop is bigger than a few feet, though. Who's coming next?"

"I will" Grace shouted, her voice echoing, letting Toby know she had already stepped onto the ladder. She seemed to fly down the ladder, a lot smoother than Toy was. The elegance she had mirrored Alison's, which of course made the world of sense. Grace had grown up probably imitating Alison's actions, like most children do to their parents. Toby was about to offer to help her off the ladder, but by the time that the words had formed in his mind, Grace had leapt from the ladder and landed smoothly on two feet meters in front of her Dad.

"You know" Toby smirked lightly. "I was about to ask if you needed any help with that bj"

"I've done this so many times" Grace sighed half-heartedly, how Alison would, and then completely shrugged it off. "Mom, are you coming?" she was answered by a 'thud', signalling Spencer had hit the ground just like Toby had.

"I'm here" Spencer groaned. "I might have to limp a bit, but I'm here" Toby pulled Spencer up and checked she was ok before turning to Grace.

"Is she in here?" He asked.

"I don't know I can't see very much, do you have a light?" Spencer pulled her phone out of her pocket and put it up to full brightness before putting it into Grace's right hand. Coincidentally, a message popped up from Emily at that moment, and Grace unlocked the phone to reveal a picture of Jack and Wyatt dressed in way oversized clothes.

"I-is this Jack and Wyatt?" Grace stuttered the question. Alison always made sure Grace remembered she had two little brothers, and that (i want to suck) Jack was Aria and Ezra's son. Family was one of the many things Alison had taught Grace in the long ten years they had together.

"Yeah" Spencer smiled softly. "Wyatt's just turned ten. He's the one on the ri-"

"On the right" Grace completed. "A little bit shorter and has Dad's eyes but our colour hair"

"That's right. And Jack's on the left, he's nearly eleven" Toby picked up.

"He looks like Auntie Aria. Mainly the eyes" Grace said.

"You remember what she looked like?" Spencer asked, both confused and amazed that she could remember.

"Vaguely. Alison showed me some pictures of her once when she found her phone in a draw. I prefer the ones Alison showed me, because Auntie Aria looks healthier in them" Grace shrugged, and quickly diverted the topic. "Follow me, there's a door through here that leads to the storeroom" Without saying anything else, Grace held the phone up to use as a torch and scanned the room with it, finding the door and making her way towards it, Spencer and Toby hot on her heels. When she was clearly struggling to open it, Toby pulled her back so he could do it instead. He wished he didn't.

Opening the door, the trio were stunned at what they saw. Wren. Not only Wren, Wren with his arm securely wrapped around a young, weeping girls neck with a gun pointed into her temple. Blood from his bottom lip dripping onto the girl's golden blonde beach waves that fell well past her chest. No doubt was this Alison's daughter. The resemblance was uncanny. The same hair, the same eyes, the same nose, even the same lips. This was Felicity.

"I thought I knocked you out upstairs" Toby said strongly, although Spencer could see right through his manly act. On the inside, Toby was scared. Guns always made him uncomfortable, they were connected to pain, hurt and death. Three things Toby did not like to deal with.

"Your punch clearly isn't as good as you think, Cavanaugh" Wren smirked, breaking his lip open further so that a steady stream of blood hit Felicity's head more regularly.

"Grace" Felicity cried, followed by a high pitched squeal when Wren dug the gun deeper into her temple.

"If any of you stepped forward, shout, or think of calling the Police, she poooos, got it?" Wren warned.

"Why are you doing this?" Spencer said while shaking her head. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but if it's ruining my life, you win! You've killed my two best friends, you've nearly killed the love of my life, and you kidnapped my daughter for ten years, Wren! What else do you want?"

Wren burst into a fit of giggles, for a second loosening his grasp on Felicity. "I'm not trying to ruin your life Spencer"

"Then what the hell are you trying to do?" Spencer automatically moved her arm to push Grace behind her, but realised she had already shuffled back into the corner. Wren scared her.

"I want to be in your life" Wren said in a tone that in any other situation would make you go 'aw'. "I've always loved you Spencer; from the day that I first met you I've known that we belong together"

Anger flared up inside Toby, but Spencer placed a reassuring hand on his forearm to stop him from stepping forward and attempting to smash up Wren's face, of which would get Felicity and probably himself killed in the process.

"Wren, I'm in love with Toby" Spencer said softly. "You have to accept that. Nothing is going to stop me wanting to be with him, not now, not ever. Let us go Wren, let us go with Felicity"

"Please Wren" Felicity squeaked. "I want to see my Mommy"

That created a whole new problem in its own, one that Spencer hadn't even given a second thought about. How on earth do you tell a four year old girl that her Mom, one of only three people she knew, one of only two people that she trusted, was dead?

"Your Mom's dead" Wren said bluntly. "I killed her earlier" Felicity understood every word, and burst into a well of tears, only to be silenced by Wren's threats of death.

"How can you say it like it doesn't hurt you?" Toby wondered out loud.

"Easy" Wren shrugged. "Alison was a bitch. She deserved what she got"

"Alison wasn't a bad person" Grace mumbled from behind Spencer. "She loved me. Love is something that you're not capable of"

Wren raised his gun up to Grace, aiming it at her face. "Shut up, you don't know a thing" Toby automatically jumped in front of Grace to protect her from the sight of Wren and his gun. "Spence,-"

"Don't. Call. Me. That." Spencer practically spat at his feet.

"Spencer, you and me, we belong together. We'd be happy together"

"I'm happy now"

"No you're not" Wren shook his head, the blood trailing down his face moving side to side. "You can't tell me you're happy with your life now. You're not even married"

"I don't need to be married to be happy" Spencer said. "I wouldn't swap my life for the world"

"Come on, Spencer. Don't lie to me. Don't tell me you've never thought about what your life would be like with me. We'd have a big house; triple the size of what you have now." Spencer ignored the fact that Wren knew where they lived. "We could have a big wedding, and all of your family would be there. We'd be so well off, I'd be a doctor and you'd be a lawyer. We'd have two little girls who looked like the perfect mix of the both of us"

"I don't know, Wren" Spencer sighed. "Maybe when I was sixteen and I hadn't met Toby yet, that's what I thought I wanted. That's not what I want anymore, Wren" She thought for a moment "At least that's what I thought, but maybe you're right"

"You don't want this Spencer. You don't want Toby, or Grace, or those two boys you left back in Montgomery County. You don't want your friends or any of your family. You only want me" Wren whispered. "Come with me, you know you want to. And then I'll let Felicity go"

"It's a deal" Spencer smiled. It wasn't right though, Toby could tell. She was up to something, and for now all he could do was retain Grace and go along with whatever she was planning. Shooting Toby and Grace an unnatural glare, Spencer casually sauntered over to Wren with a look of fake evil on her face. As soon as she was close enough, Wren released Felicity, letting her run over to the safety of Grace's arms, keeping his gun fully trained on them while his right arm wrapped protectively around Spencer's slim waste. She let out a shiver that thankfully went unnoticed by her new accomplice. "You can put the gun down now. I want to go somewhere alone with you, Doctor Wren." Spencer whispered in his ear, and she could feel the excitement creep down his spine.

"I can't let them leave" Wren said. "They'll come and look for you. I don't want them to find us" Within the space of less than five minutes Wren had morphed from a psycho-killer lunatic to simply a lovesick man who wasn't quite straight in the head, and some people might even find it somewhere in their heart to feel sorry for him.

"They won't, sweetie" Spencer whispered, planting a shaky kiss on the corner of his cracked lips. "They know I only love you"

"Look away for a second, honey" Wren demanded, returning Spencer's half kiss with one squarely on the lips. "This won't take long" He turned to Toby, who was stood guarding Grace and Felicity as still as a stone, too frozen with fear to move. He never understood why people in films don't move when a gun is pointed at them until now. Slowly, Wren pointed to gun at Toby's head as his finger slithered around the trigger. A smile snuck onto Wren's pale face as he leisurely put slight pressure on the trigger. _No, _Spencer thought. She wasn't going to let Wren win.

Acting on the first idea that formed in her over-active mind, Spencer bit down hard on Wren's shoulder, waiting to hear the sound of the metal firearm hit the ground before opening her mouth wide enough to release Wren's shoulder. Metallic blood lined her mouth and Spencer spat a ball of red saliva onto the ground. Quickly, Toby dived for the gun as it spun towards him, shielding it from Wren's grasp.

"You stupid bitch!" Wren growled as he was raising his hand and slapping Spencer clean across the face, causing her to fall in pain onto the floor. He repeatedly struck Spencer in the stomach with his foot. She writhed in agony as the world began to blur into a mix of colours, then shadows, and then eventually total darkness.

_BANG_

_BANG_

_BANG_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Hello! Thank you for the reviews for the last chapter, they were wonderful! A little sad that I didn't quite reach fifteen, is the story getting a little boring? Sorry if it is, I just need a couple of filler chapters that I'm trying to make interesting as possible, but if there's any improves I could make, which I'm sure there is, please don't hesitate to tell me through reviews or PMs. **

**So I'm writing in pretty much unknown territory for the next couple of chapters, I don't know what happens when a child gets abducted so sorry if it's wrong! Please enjoy this chapter, and follow/favourite/review! 12 reviews for Chapter Seven? Love you all xxx**

_Spencer sat cross-legged on the white leather sofa watching her two daughters playing with Barbie dolls on the floor, dressing them in perfectly co-ordinated outfits, despite the fact that they were only five years old. She loved days like these, where she didn't have to work, not even from home, and Wren finished at the hospital early on Wednesdays, so she knew that he should be home any minute now. _

"_Mommy" Charlotte, the older of the twins who had a small freckle on her nose sung from the play mat that she shared with her younger sister of seven minutes. _

"_Yes, sweetie?" Spencer replied, leaning forward onto her knees so she could hear her daughter better and seem more attentive._

"_When's the baby going to be here?"_

_Spencer ran her hand over her slightly enlarged stomach that was currently covered by an oversized jumper. Herself and Wren had been talking about having another baby for three years now, but decided it was better when the twins were a little older, especially since Amelia had severe asthma when she was born so therefore was frequently having to be tended to in the late hours on the night. Now, five months on from a romantic getaway in the city of Paris, Spencer was carrying a bouncing baby boy who sure liked to kick at three in the morning. _

"_Well, babies take about nine months to grow, and Noah-" Spencer and Wren had already decided on the name, but Charlotte didn't have as good as a memory as Amelia and found herself forgetting it frequently. "Has been inside of my tummy for five months, so he still has four months to grow"_

"_Will he be as big as us?" She asked hopefully. Luckily, what Charlotte lacked in common sense she gained in sports. Amelia turned to answer before Spencer had the chance. _

"_No, don't be silly!" Amelia laughed. "He'll be about this size" She placed her dressed up Barbie doll on the floor and motioned with her hands about eighteen inches of length. By this time, Charlotte had already lost interest, despite that she was the one who started the conversation. Amelia just shrugged and moved to sit on the sofa, leaning into Spencer. She was definitely more of the Mommy's girl out of the two, and Charlotte had Wren wrapped around her little finger. For two girls who looked so similar, they didn't act the same at all. _

"_Do you want to play on the piano later?" Spencer whispered softly in Amelia's ear. She had a love for music, and like to play or anything with keys or strings. _

_Amelia nodded. "I need to practice what Auntie Aria taught me" Aria helps Spencer teach Amelia piano on Saturdays instead of paying for a qualified teacher, and it made Amelia more determined to memorise everything she was taught. "Can you play a bit as well?" She loved listening to Spencer play, even though she wasn't that great. _

"_Sure" Spencer smiled. "I'm going to cook dinner, are you going to help me?"_

"_Yeah!" Amelia laughed contagiously, jumping off the sofa and running through to the kitchen, not listening to Spencer's warnings of 'slow down' and 'don't fall over'._

"_Char, me and Amelia are going to cook dinner, are you coming to help?" Charlotte shook her head. Spencer sighed. "In that case behave, alright? Dad will be home soon" She kissed Charlotte on the forehead before going through to the kitchen, finding Amelia already stood with her hands washed, hair typed up messily and doting a mini pink apron. _

"_Someone looks ready for making pizzas" Spencer laughed, pulling out the stool that was next to the door and propping it up just under the counter so Amelia could stand on it. "Ok, what do you want on yours?"_

_Amelia chew her lip while she thought deeply about what she was going to top her pizza with tonight. "Cheese and pineapple" She said with an assertive nod. "And Charlotte wants cheese, chicken and ham"_

"_Yeah I do!" Charlotte shouted from the living room. Spencer laughed and got the ingredients out of the fridge, along with tomato sauce and some ready-made pizza dough. She cut it up into three bits, Amelia's and Charlotte's bits were a little smaller than the one Spencer and Wren will share. After rolling out the dough, Spencer helped Amelia with her pizza, who couldn't stop complaining that she had to do Charlotte's as well._

"_Charlotte" Spencer called into the living room. "I think Amelia is doing your toppings wrong" Soon enough, Charlotte was in the kitchen and climbing up onto a stool. _

"_The chicken has to go first and THEN the ham" She said in a 'duh' voice, one she must have picked up from Hanna. "Here, I'll do it" Both Amelia and Spencer smirked as Charlotte started to top her pizza, and followed in her footsteps by doing the same. A long ten minutes later, all the pizzas were done. As Spencer bent down to put them in the oven, she nearly dropped them when Charlotte screeched-'DAD'._

"_Spencer you shouldn't be doing that" Wren rushed over to her, pulling her up by her elbows once she had safely dispatched the pizzas in the oven. "It might hurt the baby"_

"_I'm bending down to put three pizzas in the oven, not climbing Mount Everest" Spencer rolled her eyes at her husband's over-reaction. "Me-and Noah- are fine"_

_Wren nodded and leant down slightly to kiss Spencer's lips softly. It sent a shiver through her veins, shocking here in the sweetest of ways in every corner of her body. "I love you, Spencer"_

"_I love you too, Toby"_

Spencer's eyes flickered open wildly, and she slowly pieced together everything around her. It was all white; there was a quiet, steady beeping sound that was familiar. When the anti-bacterial aroma flooded her nose, Spencer knew where she was. Not in that house anymore. Not in a kitchen making pizzas. She was in a hospital. Frantically, she tried sitting up, but was pushed back down by a hand. Hanna's hand.

"Slow down there, Spence" Hanna said quietly. "You've only just woken up" She didn't know whether was he hearing or simply the emptiness of the room, but everything Hanna said was followed by an echo, and the room was still slowly rotating.

"How long have I been out?" Spencer slurred as well as she could.

"About three hours" Hanna said. "You came round in the ambulance on the way here for about two minutes, but the doctors said you wouldn't remember that"

"The doctors would be right" Spencer gravely laughed. "Please say I wasn't dreaming and that we found Grace"

"You weren't dreaming"

A smile, although painful, overcame Spencer's ill-looking face. "She's ok, right?"

"Yes" Hanna laughed joyfully. "She and Felicity are just being kept in a private room together in the children's rooms while they are being checked over"

"Check over for what? And where's Toby? Is Caleb ok? And does Emily know? What about Alison?" The questions were falling head-over-heels out of Spencer's mouth.

"I don't know what order you want me to answer them so here it goes" Hanna took a deep breath in. "Caleb's fine, a little shaken up, but fine. He's on the phone to Emily now, her and Jason are driving up with the boys as we speak, and should be here by tomorrow morning-"

"What's the time now?" Spencer interrupted.

"It's twenty past ten" Hanna said. "We were in the house for a little under an hour. Can I carry on with the first round of questions now?" Spencer nodded, encouraging her to go on. "Paramedics tried to revive Alison in the basement, but she'd already lost too much blood" Tears stabbed both the girls eyes painstakingly. "She's gone, Spencer. I think we all knew that when she closed her eyes. Something was finally stronger than Alison DiLaurentis"

The two girls sat in silence for some time, only holding onto each other's hand so tightly it was threatening their cold blood circulation. If either of them let go, they'd fall. They don't know where, but they'd fall.

"I don't know what you remember from the basement" Hanna continued carefully. "But Wren had a loaded gun"

Slowly, the details trickled back into her memory. "I thought that if I convinced him that I loved him, he'd let Felicity go and get close enough to me so I could knock the gun out of his hand, and Toby could grab it. All I remember after that is hearing three gun shots" Her breath faltered. "Please don't say he got Toby"

"From what the detectives said after looking at the scene, they think one of the bullets has ricocheted off the wall and hit Toby's leg. He's just come out of surgery" Hanna said, running her thumb soothingly over Spencer's cold knuckles. "The doctors will come and examine you in a few minutes; you'll probably have to stay in bed a little while longer before you can go and see Toby"

Spencer groaned. "I feel fine, I just want to see Toby" Then something hit her. "What happened to Wren?"

"Wren's dead, Spencer. Toby killed him" Hanna said. If there was any food in her stomach, Spencer was sure she would have puked it up all over the bed sheet after hearing that. Wren deserved to die, but it would hurt Toby more than if anyone else did it. He was a gentle, kind soul, not one that in any circumstance would want to end someone's life. Of all people Toby knows what it's like to have someone close to you be ripped from your life, and he probably is just hoping that Wren's family will one day forgiven him.

After more minutes of silence ticked by, a doctor came in. Spencer tensed up, and Hanna could feel it next to her.

"Spencer, all these doctors are from Alabama, which is where we are by the way" Hanna reassuringly reminded the brunette. "None of them have crossed paths with Wren ever, Caleb checked"

The female doctor shot a warm smile over at Spencer after looking up from her clipboard. Her blue eyes looked trusting and inviting, and reminded Spencer of Toby slightly.

"Hi Spencer" The Doctor said, standing at the foot of Spencer's hospital bed. "I'm Doctor Grayson, but please feel free to call me Charlotte if that makes you feel more comfortable" _Charlotte. _The dream that Spencer had just had came flooding back to her, and she could no longer hold back the tears so instead wept into her hands. She felt Hanna's arm wrap around her shoulders.

"What is it Spence?" Hanna asked, worry lacing her voice. Where was Spencer supposed to start? She had the dream before, years ago when she was merely sixteen and nursing a huge crush on the British charmer. Never once had she spoken about it, and she wasn't too keen to now.

"I-I had a dream" Spencer stuttered nervously. "It was about Wren"

"Is it anything that would help the investigation of what happened in the basement? Was it a dream or a memory?" Charlotte asked sweetly. Noting Spencer's glare, she sighed. "Look, Spencer. I understand if you don't trust me, we have just met after all, but I'm here for you to tell me anything, and it seems like you have a close-knit support group of friends as well as family. Whatever it is, we can help you"

"Hanna, you know when we were sixteen and all had a slight crush on Wren" Hanna nodded before letting Spencer continue. "Well, I had a dream about him once"

"Ok, if it's one of _those _dreams we don't have to know all the details-" Hanna started, but Spencer soon hit her across the arm. Her head might hurt, but it wasn't stopping her automatic reflex to Hanna's ignorant comments.

"No, it wasn't one of _those _dreams" Spencer said harshly. "We had two girls, one named Charlotte" She shot a quick look at the Doctor Charlotte, of whom seemed to be listening intently. "And one named Amelia. We were expecting a third, a little boy who we were going to call Noah"

Hanna thought for a few moments before answering in the right way this time. "Do you think you still have feelings for Wren?"

"No way" Spencer immediately replied. "At least I didn't think so. But at the end of the dream, Wren said he loved me, and I replied 'I love you too, Toby'"

"This could just be your reaction to discovering Wren's true personality" Charlotte said again quietly. Spencer might actually warm to this young woman if she kept going like this. "Your brain is probably trying to create a Wren that you'd want to believe is true, such as an average family man who loved his family. I don't believe that you wanted to be with him, though. From what I've heard, you two love each other a lot"

A guilt look crossed Hanna's face after Spencer passed her a questioning glance. "When you were out of it, you kept mumbling 'Toby' over and over again. I met Charlotte a couple of hours ago when we got here, and she asked who Toby was. I may or may not have told her some stories about the pair of you"

"Thanks, Hanna" Spencer rolled her eyes. "When can I see my family?"

"I have to do a short-term and long-term memory test, its procedure" Charlotte sighed. "Then I have to talk to the cops to see whether they are letting people in to see Grace and Felicity, they are still talking about therapists and such"

"Have you seen them?" She asked eagerly. Charlotte laughed heartily.

"I did their checkups when they came in shortly after you did. Grace looks like you nearly identically, and Felicity is tiny even for a four year old"

"What about their health?" Spencer kept digging. "Is that all ok?"

"As you know Spencer, Wren had done some unspeakable things to Alison and bad things to your daughter as well as Felicity, too. The two of them are both very underweight, Felicity more so as Alison was most likely malnourished during her pregnancy so therefore Felicity was also probably premature, hence her size and slur when she speaks" Funnily, Spencer hadn't noticed that down in the basement, probably because she wasn't paying attention so much to what Felicity was saying as to what Wren was going to do with the gun. "We're not too sure yet, but Felicity might have some problems in her lungs that we won't know much about until we have permission to do further testing. I've managed to have a look at Grace's ribs, because she said they hurt a lot. It seems that two are broken and have grown back wrong, but I can tell you more of the details later, right now I have to do your concussion test"

Spencer nodded and rolled her eyes, causing Hanna to laugh slightly.

"I'm going to shine this light in your eyes" Charlotte explained and did so. "Your eyes constricted as expected. I'm just going to run through some routine questions. What's your full name?"

"Spencer Jill Hastings"

"Birthday?"

"April 11th 1996"

"And what was the name of your first pet?"

"I've never had one" Spencer smiled sadly. "If I did, it would be called Albert"

"Like Einstein?" Charlotte smiled.

"We could get along" Spencer laughed. It felt good to laugh after so long. "So, have you now got enough information to realise that I don't have concussion?"

"With your over-used sarcasm, yes" Charlotte teased lightly. "Is she always like this, ?"

"Every day of the week" Hanna said with thumbs up. "Can we see Toby and Grace soon?"

"I just need you to fill out this release form for Spencer, while I go talk to the therapists and officers about Grace. Toby should be coming around from the drugs around now, hopefully you can get there before he wakes up" Charlotte explained, giving Hanna a form. "Just fill that in and give it in to the front desk at the entrance. Spencer you're clothes from your car are in the bathroom next to the shower" She gave both the girls a warming smile before exiting the room and through the window Spencer could see Charlotte rush down the corridor assumingly to where Grace and Felicity are being held with the therapists.

"She's nice" Hanna said from the seat she had made herself comfortable in. "I spoke to her for a while before you woke up"

"She seems ok" Spencer got out of the bed and made her way through to the bathroom. "I'm just going to have a shower, ok Han?" She didn't bother waiting for a reply before stripping her clothes of her body and disposing them onto the floor. A shiver shook her before she turn to dials on the shower high, craving the burning heat on her chilled body. Escaping her lips, Spencer made multiple groans as the water ran off her. Nothing could beat a nice, hot shower. She rinsed her hair, since there was no shampoo, and stepped out into a large towel and wrapped it snugly around herself.

"Spence, you've been in there a while" She heard Hanna call. "Are you ok?" Spencer didn't even realise she'd been occupying the bathroom for very long, it felt like five minutes.

"Yeah, I'm just getting changed" She rummaged through the plastic bag Charlotte promised was in there and found one of Toby's shirt, the one she had slept in when they made their midway stop, and a baggy pair of shorts. Great, she was going to be walking around the hospital in pyjamas. Better than the clothes she was wearing before, all ripped and dirty. Sure enough, when she went back into the room Hanna was waiting impatiently.

"I've already handed in the form" Hanna said. "Toby's just woken up"

XXXXX

The corridors were unfamiliar, for some reason Spencer always thought that hospitals were the same design, just long, white corridors. Of course both Rosewood and Alabama hospital both have long, white corridors, just in very different shapes. Hanna led the way through all the twists and turns, so quickly she could have done it with her eyes closed. Soon they were stood outside.

"I'll wait out here" Hanna declared. "If Charlotte comes and tells me anything I'll come in and let you two know"

"Are you sure you don't want to come say hi?" Spencer asked.

"No it's fine, really" She said. "Caleb's round here somewhere anyway. I should probably try to find him" Hanna sent her friend a warm smile before disappearing around the door. Not hesitating for another second, Spencer entered Toby's room.

"Spencer" His slightly off-colour face lit up like the sun. "You're ok"

Spencer nodded and rushed over to his bed, awkwardly hugging the top half of his body. "I'm fine" She breathed in relief. "How's your leg"

He inhaled her hair that had fallen across his face. "It hurts a little bit, not nearly as much as thinking that maybe, down in that basement, that I was going to lose you and Grace"

"You haven't" She mumbled into his neck. "You never will" She pressed a soft kiss where her mouth laid then brought her head up, running her fingers through Toby's messy hair in the process.

"She's ok, isn't she?" Spencer knew immediately that Toby was referring the Grace.

"From what Charlotte has told me she is" Spencer smiled. "Well, as fine as you can be after all that has happened. There are a lot of people trying to work out what to do"

Fear crossed Toby's eyes at the speed of light. "She's going to come home with us, right?"

"I hope so" Her voice cracked, because really she didn't know. What if someone decided that going home would be too much for her after ten years? Or that she and Toby weren't prepared to look after their daughter who had been through so much? "I don't know what's going to happen to Felicity"

"She looks so much like Alison" Toby pondered. "I hope she stays in our lives in some way"

"She will" Charlotte's distinct voice said from the back of the room. Neither of them had heard her come in. "Social workers have decided that for the time being Felicity needs to be somewhere around Grace for the time being."

Spencer whipped her head around. "Has that just been decided?"

"Yes" Charlotte said. "We've spent twenty minutes trying to separate them so you two can go see her, it was decided that it was best that Grace came here alone, without Felicity, since she's still extremely delicate over her mother's death, as is Grace, so try steer clear of that"

"Is she outside?" Toby asked.

"Yes she's outside" Charlotte laughed at the happiness both Toby and Spencer so quickly displayed upon hearing those words. "I do have to sit in here and overlook the meeting, but I promise to be very quiet, you won't even realise I'm here" She whispered towards the end as she made her way towards the door. After what seemed like a lifetime, Charlotte opened the door to reveal a small girl stood behind it, looking anxious with the exact same face Spencer has when's she's nervous.

"Grace, finally properly re-meet your parents" Charlotte introduced, stepping to the side so the room was fully accessible. Grace hesitated for a moment, and then her face lit up like a Christmas tree. She ran towards Spencer's awaiting arms, launching herself into the safety of her Mother.

"Mom" Grace whispered, all the pain, anger, hurt and upset pouring out in one simple word. She lifted her head from Spencer's chest, where her head now came up, and look at Toby's bed. "Dad"

Finally, she was home.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Okay I'm finally back! I guess I had a little break from this story, I got completely stuck on what to do/what to write, but with a lot of help from some friends on Twitter, I managed to scrape this pretty short chapter together. Hopefully Chapter 8 will be up some time next week, but the more reviews the quicker I'll update!**

No words strung together could describe the feeling of holding someone in your arms of whom you thought you'd lost forever. Sure, at the house where they found Grace they had a moment, but it was very short-lived and ridden with the feeling of dread. Would they get out alive? Well now they have, and Grace is exactly where she belongs.

"I've missed you so much" Grace went over and hugged Toby's body tightly, like Spencer had done. "I never thought I'd see you again. Alison always promised I would, but I never believed her" She was talking at a fast pace, trying to get all her feelings across at once. Toby didn't know what to say, so he just held her tightly, letting his emotions run freely down his face.

"Grace" He kept mumbling repeatedly. "Grace"

"It's me, Dad" She smiled into his neck. "It's really me" She brought her head up from Toby's neck and perched on the edge of the bed, making room for Spencer to sit next to her. "They kept asking me questions, I've wanted to see you both ever since we got here but they wanted to talk first"

Spencer stole a weary glance at Charlotte, who simply nodded for her to answer. "Well sweetie-" Spencer started, trying to think of how to finish. "What you have to understand is that the social workers, the therapists, the doctors; they all want you to be safe and feel happy. That's why they checked you over to make sure you weren't very badly hurt, along with Felicity"

"What's going to happen to Felicity?" Grace asked. "Surely they can't split us up? I'm the only person that she trusts"

Charlotte jumped in to save Spencer from explaining. "All I can say is that for now we are going to make sure you and Felicity aren't split up. Right now, she's sat with Hanna in a private room with some therapists over-looking it"

"A bit like how you're here" Grace asked, annoyance tingeing her voice ever so slightly.

"A bit like how I'm here" Charlotte confirmed heartedly. "Sorry, I'll go back to my corner" Once she had returned to her chair, Grace's voice turned quieter.

"Next time I have to get questioned, will you come with me?" Grace turned to look into Spencer's replicated eyes. "Please"

"Of course" Spencer smiled, placing her hand on Grace's, but pulled away quickly when Grace jumped. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you"

"You didn't" Grace's voice broke. "I-It's just-It's just that I'm always feeling kind of on high alert" Spencer and Toby listened intently "I was always scared, scared that out of nowhere, that Wren would appear. Because sometimes he did"

"You don't have to talk about it now" Spencer said. "We need happy thoughts right now, ok?"

Grace nodded, wiping away the remnants of her tears. "How are my brothers?"

Toby visibly smiled when she called them 'brothers', not just Jack and Wyatt. "I'm surprised you remember them" He said. "You were three" Grace shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't know why, but I remember a lot. Besides, I can't forget my brothers" She smiled. Another thing that Toby and Spencer thought they'd never see again. Their daughter smile. "I remember my third birthday, Ja-Uncle Jason got me that pet hamster, and you got me a locket" She dug around in her pocket for a few moments before pulling out two rusty pieces of metal. Upon closer inspection, Spencer saw them to be a locket and a ring.

"Is that" Spencer whispered. "Aria's ring?"

Grace nodded. "He didn't like me wearing it, so I kept it under the floorboards in that room you found me in and put it in my pocket when he'd get home. It made me feel like she was always watching over me"

"She is" Toby said, reaching slowly for Grace's hand as to not startle her. "She always is" She nodded again.

"I vaguely remember her giving it to me" Grace smiled. "She told me she was really happy to meet me, but that we didn't have very long. I still haven't watched a black and white film"

"Well then, that's going to be the first thing we do when we get home" Spencer promised with a warm glow. "But referring to your original question, Jack and Wyatt are great"

"Are they coming up here?" She asked hopefully.

"Hanna's called them" Spencer explained. "But if we are allowed to go home soon, I'll have to call Aunt Emily and tell them not to bother, but sometime soon"

"Aunt Emily" Grace smiled. "She was playing with me in the woods when...well...you know. Alison used to tell me a lot about her"

"Really?" Toby said. Grace nodded affirmatively.

"I'm pretty sure that she loved her" Grace shrugged. "By the way she talked about her. She said a lot that she didn't treat her right, and she should have been better to her when they were teenagers... she said she should have been better to all of you"

Toby or Spencer didn't know what to say, and thankfully Charlotte came in, and Spencer cursed herself for not realising she had walked out. She came in with someone Toby and Spencer both recognised.

" " Spencer said, turning to fully face the aged woman, who looked very similar to how she did ten years ago. "How long have you been here?"

"I came up as soon as I heard about what happened, the police department called me since they knew we already had connections, thankfully I was in state in a meeting" explained. She had been in Spencer and Toby's lives for as long as they could remember now. She helped Toby through his Mother's death, Spencer through Alison's disappearance, -A problems and near drug relapse, and the pair with Grace's kidnapping. stepped further into the room, nearer the bed, followed by Charlotte. "If it's okay with the both of you, I'd like to work with your whole family during this time as a family therapist. I'll also be working with Felicity as well"

It didn't take two seconds for Toby to nod. "Yes of course, I wouldn't trust anybody else"

smiled warmly. "Thank you. The cops have spoken to me about what the best thing to do is, and I think it would be best to take Grace home tomorrow morning. Hanna's already called Emily to tell her not to come up. Obviously I need to talk to Jack and Wyatt before they meet Grace, so I'll be travelling back there in a couple of hours, as there's still a lot of arrangements to be made" Toby and Spencer nodded as they listened. sat in the chair opposite the bed, clearly she was going to be staying a while.

"Where are you living at the moment?" She asked, getting out a notepad and paper.

"We've just moved to a house in Montgomery County" Spencer explained. "We were mid-way through unpacking when we came to Alabama"

"Okay" nodded. "I think what's best at the moment is for you to be at the house where Grace has already lived. It's near your friends, right?" Spencer nodded. "Familiar surroundings and people will definitely help Grace's transition, do you remember the house, Grace?"

"Vaguely. I remember the kitchen because Dad made killer pancakes" Grace laughed. "And he used to load on the chocolate and sprinkles"

"See? Smiling already" lightly teased. "Of course it is a very big thing to do, and if you've already sold the house-"

"We haven't" Toby quickly said. "It's completely empty. We just need to call the removal men"

She nodded. "I'll have someone do that for you. It's going to be a couple of days until the house is ready to live in, do you know where you'll be staying until then?"

"We really haven't thought about it yet" Spencer admitted.

"Have you considered a friend's house? It might be a good idea for Jack and Wyatt to stay with someone else for a couple of nights, to slowly get them used to the fact their sister is back, because it is going to be tough on them" She sighed. "Maybe you could stay with Hanna?"

Spencer hummed in agreement. "And Jack and Wyatt could stay with Emily and Jason"

"This all seems like a lot of things" Grace said sadly. "I don't want to change your lives too much by doing all of this" Spencer wrapped her arm around Grace's shoulders and pulled her into her side.

"Baby listen to me" Spencer whispered. "You are not, and are never going to be, a burden on any of our lives. Yes we have to do a lot of things, but it's all going to be worth it to get you home" She peppered light kisses along Grace's hairline, making her eyes flutter shut.

"She looks exhausted" commented. "I'll leave you to rest while I go make some arrangements"

Grace nodded sleepily.

"Grace would you like me to find you a bed to sleep on?" Charlotte asked.

"No thanks, I want to stay with my Mom and Dad" She curled up onto Spencer's lap and within minutes was fast asleep.

XXXXX

had carried out her promise in incredibly quick time, and half an hour later had she'd somehow arranged a flight home for Toby, Spencer, Grace, Hanna, Caleb, Felicity along with some therapists Felicity was talking to, and Charlotte, who was going to be stationed at Rosewood Hospital for a couple of months. Now, had gone to get Felicity, Hanna and Caleb from the other room so that Felicity could meet Spencer and Toby before they all got on the plane.

"She's just very shy" Grace said from her lying position on the bed. Toby had been discharged with a wheelchair, but had to go to the hospital once they got back to Rosewood. "And I'm going to guess she won't trust many people, but Ali talked to her a lot about when we escaped, she could trust you guys, Emily and Jason, and Hanna and Caleb"

Spencer and Toby both nodded nervously. Before they had time to ask any more questions, returned with Caleb, Hanna and a very scared looking Felicity in tow. A soon as the little blonde girl peered from behind Hanna's legs, her eyes lit up and she darted over to Grace, Grace pulled her into her lap. "Hi there munch kin" Grace said with a short laugh.

"Gwace" Felicity mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear. Spencer understood now what Charlotte was saying about Felicity having speech impairment; most four years olds could pronounce their 'R's. Less than a minute later Grace coaxed her to bring her head up to look around.

"See them two people over there" She pointed to Spencer and Toby, who were squeezed into one chair. Felicity nodded slowly. "Well they're my Mom and Dad, and they used to be very good friends with your Mom. Their names are Toby and Spencer"

"Au-auntie Spensa and Uncle Toby?" The little girl questioned quietly.

"Did your Mommy tell you about us?" Spencer smiled warmly, moving to kneel in front of her daughter and Felicity. She also hadn't noticed how much she did look like Ali, and thankfully hadn't inherited any of Wren's facial features.

Felicity nodded again. "Sh-she said...she said that I c-cou-could trust you" Clearly the more she spoke the worse her stutter got and the more rapid her breathing became. "Y-ou look after...me?"

quickly swooped in and interrupted. "We've spoken already about this, haven't we Felicity? I need to talk to a lot of people before we decide where and who you're going to be with until we find out who your Mommy wanted you to live with" Felicity nodded sadly, and everyone's heart broke watching her eyes water and her bottom lip start to quiver. Hanna moved down to the other side of the small girl.

"If all the big business people-" She couldn't really think of another word to describe the cops and psychologists. "-say yes, you can come live in my house for a little while if you like"

"Okay" Felicity whispered softly, curling her knees her chest. "W-will you...co-come and s-ee me?" She looked at Spencer and Toby.

"Of course" Spencer promised, putting out her pinky finger. "Pinky promise"


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter! As promised, here is Chapter 8 **

**Please review, follow and favourite! More reviews the quicker the chapter, and please tell me you'd like to see the story go xx**

The flight back the next morning wasn't as strange as Spencer thought it was going to be. Somehow Dr. Sullivan, who now insisted to be called Anne, had lined up a small, private jet for the group, with a reasonable of space to move around for the flight. Hanna and Caleb sat with Felicity, Charlotte and Anne, who were all very eager to find out more about Felicity, which was quite hard considering she doesn't know much about the outside world apart from what Ali had told her. Spencer, Toby and Grace sat on their own for a little while.

"When you were two" Toby smiled warmly at the sight in front of him, Spencer and Grace cuddled up on the sofa opposite. "We spent about two hours trying to make your Mom breakfast on her birthday?"

Spencer started to laugh at the memory. "And I wasn't allowed out of bed until it was made"

"Really?" Grace asked. "What took us so long to?"

_Toby was woken up by his ankle being shaken by a small hand. Sleepily, he brought his head out of Spencer's shoulder to look towards the end of the bed. As expected, Grace was stood there, determination glossing her eyes, the same type of determination that Spencer showed in high school at her decathlon and field hockey matches. _

"_Daddy wake up" Grace whispered affirmatively. "I want to make Mommy breakfast"_

_He blinked a few times so his vision was no longer blurred. "Okay" He whispered back, still in a sleepy daze. "What's the time?" He couldn't see the alarm clock over Spencer's body, of which her back was curled up into his chest._

"_It's half six" Grace shrugged. "But Mommy likes to wake up early and have breakfast and coffee"_

_Toby laughed at how well his daughter knew her Mother. Every week-day morning, around half seven, Spencer got up for breakfast, usually a muffin, and two cups of coffee, and today was Tuesday, and just because it was her birthday didn't mean that her routine would be any different. "Alright then, give me a minute to get up" Just as he was about to pull the covers back, he remembered something very important. He and Spencer were both naked. "Actually" He dragged out the 'y'. "You go watch TV for a little bit while I get up, I have to do it very quietly or your Mom might wake up" Grace stood there for a moment, then ran out as quickly as she came in. _

_Taking a deep sigh of relief, Toby carefully detached his and Spencer's entwined limbs and picked up his clothes off the floor to cover himself with. Just as he was about to get up, Spencer rolled over and started mumbling something._

"_What's that, babe?" Toby asked with a chuckle, putting his face right close to hers. "Oh and Happy Birthday"_

_Spencer smiled. It still took Toby's breath away at how stunningly beautiful she was in the morning; while he was pretty sure he looked worse than Shrek. Or maybe even Donkey. "I said where are you going? And thank you, I can finally legally drink"_

_He wasn't too sure whether Grace wanted it to be a surprise or not, so he decided to keep the breakfast a secret. "Grace just got up, so I figured I should go and watch her downstairs to make sure she isn't getting herself in too much trouble"_

"_Oh I'll come" Spencer started to get up, and like Toby remembered she wasn't clothed underneath and clutched the duvet close to her chest. "Well just give me a minute to get changed-" She said frantically, but Toby cut her off with a kiss._

"_Babe" He laughed. "Stay in bed, have a lie in" He gently pressed her back onto the bed, hovering over her momentarily. "I think you need to rest after last night, anyway" He teased._

"_Well, I guess I am a little sore" Spencer flirted, running her fingers through Toby's ruffled hair. "I guess I could do with a lie in"_

"_Told you" He smirked, pressing a lasting kiss to her awaiting lips. "Just stay in here until I tell you, ok? I love you"_

"_Are you just saying that to get me to stay in here?" She asked, slapping his hand on her chest. "Because that, Toby Cavanaugh, would be blackmail"_

"_It's not blackmail if it's true" Toby smiled, putting his lips back on hers again to prove it. "Please stay in here?"_

"_Fine" She sighed eventually. "But only because I love you a little bit as well"_

"_Thank you" He grinned, leaving a final kiss on her forehead before rushing downstairs, finding Grace sat on the sofa intently watching an old episode of Spongebob. Sneaking up behind her, Toby picked Grace up and ran through with her into the kitchen while she squealed with laughter. He stood her up on the counter, where she could still stand under the cupboard without hitting her head. _

"_Okay princess" He said. "You need to wash your hands"_

"_Done" She grinned with pride._

"_Decided what we're making?" Toby asked, eyebrows raised._

"_Blueberry pancakes with syrup and raspberry muffins" Grace said. "And bacon"_

"_And do we everything we need to make them?"_

_She thought for a moment. "I asked Auntie Emily yesterday and she said we did"_

"_How come you asked Auntie Emily and not me then?" Toby laughed, tickling Grace's sides until she was bending over in a fit of giggles._

"_Because...because" She got her breath back once Toby stopped tickling her. "Auntie Emily said you always tell Mommy everything"_

"_Oh ok then" Toby nodded, and suddenly realised it was now seven o'clock and it was going to take a while to make breakfast. "Let's start with the muffins"_

_Just over an hour later, the bacon was done and being kept warm in the top oven with the pancakes, and the muffins were cooking in the main oven. Toby wasn't looking too messy; only a couple of splashes on grease on his t-shirt that spat off the pan when he was frying to bacon, but Grace, on the other hand, didn't quite escape so easily. Somehow, when she was doing the muffin mix, she'd spilt the bag of flour over on the side, and an explosion of flour dust hit her face. She kept wiping it away and on her Disney princess onezie, so there was now flour smeared all over it. _

"_How long will the muffins take?" Grace asked, staring intently at the over where she sat leg-crossed in front of it. Toby was sat in the same position next to her. _

"_About twenty minutes" He sighed. "And it's now eight, so your Mom is probably getting pretty restless in her room" Almost on cue, the pair heard Spencer shout something from upstairs. Alarmed, Toby and Grace looked at each other with wide eyes before shooting up to Spencer and Toby's room. Thankfully she was still sat up in bed._

"_So you two are alive then" Spencer smirked, holding her arms out open. "Don't I get cuddles on my birthday?" She directed her glance to Grace, who simply grinned and jumped into her Mom's arms._

"_Happy birthday Mommy" Grace pressed a kiss on Spencer's cheek. "Guess how many presents Daddy got you!"_

"_I don't know" Spencer laughed as Toby sat next to her and wrap his arm around her waist. "How many?"_

"_Twenty one!" Grace exclaimed. "One for every year you've been alive!"_

"_That's a lot of presents" Spencer said, turning to Toby. "When do I get them?"_

"_Some this morning, some when everyone comes over, and some this evening" Toby smiled, kissing Spencer's face somewhere different after each clause. _

"_I want to give you something now" Grace said, running off and returning a minute later with something hidden behind her back. She returned back to her original position on her Mom's lap and gave her a large, hand-made card. Spencer took a moment to admire it. _

_It was done in crayon, and three people were drawn on it. The small stick-girl, who was labelled as 'me', had two bigger stick-people on each side, one labelled 'You' and one labelled 'Dad'. 'You' was holding what looked like a very big glass of red wine. Spencer burst out laughing._

"_Auntie Hanna and Auntie Emily helped me make it" Grace explained. "They told me to draw that" She pointed at the wine glass._

"_I guessed" Spencer nodded and showed Toby, who also laughed. Just as she was about to put it down to give Grace a hug, she was stopped._

"_No! You have to read the inside" Grace insisted, pushing back into Spencer's hand._

_Spencer over-exaggeratingly sighed. The writing inside was also done in red crayon, that stood out amongst the blue card. She began to read. "To the bestest Mommy ever, have a very very good birthday and don't get too dru-Did Auntie Hanna get you to write that as well?"_

_Grace smiled. "I don't really get it"_

"_Good" Toby ruffled her hair._

"_Carry on reading!" Grace demanded, pushing away Toby's hand._

_Spencer quickly resumed to reading the card. "I love you forever and ever, from Grace. Thank you baby, I love it" She planted a loving kiss on Grace's forehead. "And I love you, too. Forever and ever"_

"Okay, I did _not _need to know the beginning of that story" Grace said with a twisted look, untangling herself from Spencer's arms to sit up straight. "Seriously"

Spencer and Toby looked at each other and laughed. "Sorry sweetie" Toby apologised.

She shivered. "The last thing I need is the thought of you and mo-" Grace was stopped by the shrieks coming from Felicity nearer the front of the plane. Without a second thought, Grace darted up and rushed over to the little girl's side.

Felicity had her knees tucked tightly up against her chest, and she was shaking and crying uncontrollably. A pungent odour became noticeable when Grace bent down in front of Felicity.

"What happened? " Grace asked, shooting her glare between Hanna, Caleb, Charlotte and Anne, who all looked confused. The three turned to Hanna, who was sat next to Felicity.

"She had a bit of an accident-" Hanna explained panicky. "I just asked if she needed to go to the toilet" Felicity visibly tightened hearing the words, and Grace somehow cottoned on immediately, and started talking to Felicity.

"Come on Lissy, calm down" Grace hushed her, running a soothing hand through the shaking toddler's golden curls. "Auntie Hanna isn't going to do anything to you. The bad man's gone now"

After a while, Felicity's shrieks morphed into an underlying whimper, she started mumbling. "No toilet" and "No locking me up". Everyone watched in awe as Grace calmed Felicity down, there was really much else that they could do, at the moment Felicity only trusts Grace not to hurt her.

"I make mess" Felicity said. She finally brought her head up from her knees, her eyes were blood-shot from crying and her cheeks were flushed, most likely from embarrassment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Lissy. Don't apologise" Grace smiled, resting her hand on Felicity's cheek comfortingly. She soon realised that everyone was staring at her, and looked around awkwardly. "Should we go clean you up in the bathroom? It's safe I promise"

Felicity shook her head. "What if we get locked in?"

"You can leave the door open" Hanna suggested. "I'll stand outside if you want"

Felicity looked sceptical, but after an encouraging nod from everyone, agreed. She held her arms up, and Grace picked her up and rested her with ease on her hip, as if she had done it many times before, of which she probably had. Hanna followed her through to the back of the cabin where the toilet was.

"Auntie Hanna, can you go see if Uncle Caleb or Dad has a hoody or something I can change Felicity into?" Grace asked, putting Felicity onto the toilet. Hanna nodded and went back out to the group, who gave her sympathetic looks.

"Does anyone have anything that we can change Felicity into?" Hanna asked.

"I've got a jumper in here" Caleb said, rummaging through his back and passing it to his wife. "It'll be way too big for her, though"

"It's fine" Hanna smiled, pressing a kiss on his lips to thank him. "Oh and Spence, it's amazing watching Grace handle this. She's pretty much doing it on her own; I just came to get the jumper"

"She is an extraordinary girl" Anne smiled at Toby and Spencer. "You better give that jumper to her" Hanna nodded and went back through into the toilet, where Grace was still trying to soothe Felicity.

"See, nothing bad is happening, is it? Everyone's still ok" Grace said softly. She turned to see Hanna standing behind her. "Look, and Auntie Hanna's back. Will you let her sort you out while I go back to talk to everyone?"

"Ok" Felicity said softly. Grace smiled at her, then Hanna, and walked out, leaving Hanna and Felicity alone.

"Hi sweetie, I brought you a jumper to wear" Hanna said. "There isn't a shower or anything to rinse you off, so we might just have to use the sink-"

"You look like Mommy" Felicity interrupted, making Hanna's movement size and consequently drop the jumper onto the floor.

"W-what does that mean?" Hanna asked after her brain had processed what Felicity said.

"I...I twust you"

XXXXX

"Whenever Felicity was crying, usually after Wren hurt me or Alison for something, he'd go lock her in the bathroom for hours until she stopped" Grace explained, pain glossing her now darker looking eyes. "No food, no water. He locked her in there for two days once"

Everyone was leaning forward, listening intently to Grace re-telling the story of what Wren did to make Felicity so scared of going to the toilet. "She obviously has bad memories there; I think she's been into a bathroom once without being forced to"

"Of course, you don't need to explain anymore if you don't want to" Anne said after she, as expected, had written it all down.

"Did he ever do it to you?" Toby blurted out, his mouth acting quicker than his thought processes.

Grace simply nodded. "A few times when I was younger, I got over it quicker though I guess. He's done worse"

Before anyone could say anything, Hanna returned, carrying Felicity, who was sleeping in Caleb's jumper that covered her whole body and then some.

"How is she?" Grace immediately asked, wiping away a stray tear that escaped from her brown eyes.

"She seemed nervous the whole time we were in there, she didn't take her eyes away from the door" Hanna said quietly, sitting down and repositioning Felicity so that she looked comfortable. "I think she's just very tired now"

"I'm surprised how little she ate earlier" Spencer commented, looking down at how innocent Felicity looked curled up on Hanna's lap.

"Her stomach's probably small" Charlotte explained, of course being the doctor. "Grace, you didn't each much either before we left did you?"

Grace shook her head, leaning back against the black leather couch, which only brought out her paleness. "I'm not used to being fed if that's what you're getting at" She spat, suddenly anger strongly laced her voice with an attitude Spencer and Toby had yet to hear. It sounded a lot like Alison.

"Hey, watch your tone" Toby scolded, although his voice was still kind. "She's only trying to help"

"Why ask me a question that they already know the answer to?" Grace strained, each word getting a decibel louder. "It's pretty obvious I wasn't fed much, and Charlotte literally just said herself that Felicity has a small stomach, so why can't I? Why keep questioning me about what happened"

"Grace" Anne said softly. "Charlotte never asked you what happened, just how much you ate before we left"

"You know how much I ate" Grace pointed out. "You sat staring at me as I ate less than half of it"

"Grace, stop being so defensive!" Spencer cried. "What's gotten into you?"

"You want me to stop being defensive? How about _you_ go get raped by a guy who held you captive for ten years and try to keep it together while you crumble inside?" As soon as the words trailed off her tongue, Grace regretted it. She couldn't handle the mixed glares she was getting: disbelief, sympathy, sorrow, even a slight bit of anger. Getting up, she rushed to the back seats where she was sat earlier with her parents; she curled up next to the window, and let out all her emotions from the past ten years.


End file.
